Absolutely Alice
by missunderst00d
Summary: What would happen if Alice was a teenager and all of her Wonderland friends were human? Rated M for later chapters
1. Down the Rabbit Hole

**It's my first story so please R&R!**

"It's bloody cold out here! Can't we go inside?" Dinah complained from atop a large boulder.

"You are free to leave whenever you'd like," Alice replied, looking up only briefly from the novel she was reading. Her mitten-clad hands were clamped tightly over the edges of the book for fear that the bone-chilling wind would rustle the pages and make her lose her spot.

Alice sat on the ground, her back against the bolder that her best friend was standing on. She was dressed for the weather, bundled in her warmest winter coat, a scarf, and matching hat and gloves. Dinah, however, was not prepared for the wind's harsh bite.

"Come on, Allie! You know I can't leave you alone out here!" Dinah grumbled.

"Would you care for some cheese?" Alice asked, not looking up from her book.

"What the hell are you on about?"

"It would go perfectly with your whine."

Dinah was quite accustomed to Alice's odd, old-fashioned sarcasm. In fact, Dinah was quite accustomed to many of the curious things that Alice did, such as sitting outside in the bitter cold reading a book. As her only friend, Dinah felt it was her responsibility to look after Alice.

She jumped down from her perch and tugged on one of her friend's gold locks. "Come, now, Allie. It's time to go."

Alice dog-eared the next page of her book and looked up at Dinah. "Remind me, Dinah. When did the queen die?"

"Really, Allie, we're wasting time-"

"If you knew time as well as I do, you wouldn't talk about wasting it," Alice muttered.

Dinah acknowledged that Alice was perhaps the strangest seventeen-year-old in all of Oxford. Her best friend could have been the most popular girl at their school; she was gorgeous! Curves in all the right places, beautiful blonde hair, not a blemish on her face. Boys who didn't know her would try to work up the nerve to talk to her, and that's where their fantasies ended. Once she opened her mouth, all of her positive characteristics fell by the wayside.

It was hardly her fault that the teenage populate were ignorant followers who only cared about the latest fashion and what they could get to drink at the local bar. They were much too focused on becoming adults, Alice thought, and they were scarcely worth a second glance.

Alice sighed a deep sigh. "Dinah, why don't you go ahead to QL - Jericho and order me some tea. I'll meet you there when I've finished the chapter," she told her friend.

"You're not going to wander off, are you?" Dinah said, looking down at Alice who was quite fond of wandering off into the large wood they were sitting in.

"I won't," she assured Dinah. "I'll be along in a minute."

Dinah left with the swiftness and grace of a housecat as Alice returned to the novel in her hands. Looking down at the pages, she realized that this was the kind of book she would have dreaded to read as a child; there were no pictures at all! Luckily, this no longer bothered Alice. She learned that her imagination would draw out the pictures for her so the books became a sort of film.

_I would make an excellent director_, Alice thought. And indeed, she would, for the pictures in her head were so vivid that they could have been real.

She read to the end of the chapter and, as promised, stood to leave and meet Dinah at the café. Straightening the short blue dress she wore under her coat and separating the fine fabric from the static cling of her tights, Alice saw something out of the corner of her eye. Something had moved. But when she looked into the nearby bushes, she could see nothing there.

"Oh dear, I _shall_ be late," said a deep voice.

Leaning against a tree nearby was a boy, probably a year or so older than Alice, holding a pocket watch. His hair was tousled and was so blonde it was almost white. He wore the strangest outfit. In the cold weather, all he wore was a pair of tight jeans and a t-shirt with a rabbit on it.

_Curious_, Alice thought to herself.

She had no sooner thought the word when the boy looked up to meet her eye. Cocking his head to the side, he repeated, "Oh dear."

The boy tucked the watch into the pocket of his pants without breaking eye contact with Alice. Suddenly, he took off running through the forest.

"Wait!" Alice cried, running after him. "Wait! I can help you!"

She must have looked rather peculiar flying through the forest after a boy that she had never seen before, but Alice did not stop to think about that. She was too focused on finding out what he could possibly be late for.

All of the sudden, the boy leapt into a deep hole. So deep, in fact, that Alice could not see the bottom of it. She paused momentarily before jumping in after him, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

As she was falling, Alice looked around her to see pictures. Moving pictures, much like the ones she saw in her head as she read her books. Down, down, down she fell and the pictures became more, more, more…odd. A great dragon creature was snapping his jaws at a knight dressed in polished silver. The dragon creature was about to swallow the knight when a young man in a rather large hat threw a tea cup at it. The dragon turned, aware of new prey. Before Alice could yell for the man to run, her bottom hit the ground.

"I should not like to travel in that way again," Alice murmured, rubbing her sore backside.

"But it is quite fun," the boy with the rabbit shirt said. He was leaning on the wall opposite Alice with his arms folded across his chest and was looking at her with a smile.

"I beg your pardon, but who are-"

The boy straightened up and walked over to her. "I'm White," he said, taking her hand, "and you're Alice. Yes, of that I am quite certain."

After quickly removing her gloves, White let go of Alice's hands and set his fingers loose upon her hair. The golden strands seemed to capture his full attention as he lifted one to his nose for a sniff. His nimble fingers grabbed the hat from her head and threw it across the room with her gloves.

"Excuse me but-"

"Oh you won't be needing those anymore," White whispered into her ear which sent shivers up Alice's spine. "It isn't quite as cold here as it is up there."

Alice was not sure how to feel about White. He was very close to her, now removing her coat from around her. She had known boys before, having gone to school with them for many years, but she had not known them intimately. This boy was attractive, she decided. More attractive than any boy she'd met at school.

He chuckled softly, hugging Alice to himself. "You aren't too bad to look at yourself."

Had he read her mind again like he had in the forest?

"That reminds me," he said, taking out his pocket watch again, "I'm very late. But before I go, I should mention that the weather is not the only difference between our worlds."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked.

"Hmmm, how can I explain?" The boy tapped his chin as Alice waited for him to put his thoughts together. "Ahh! I know! Three little letters, a paradox to some. The worse that it is, the better it becomes."

White began running from Alice yet again. "White! Wait! What do you mean? Where am I to go?"

Either the boy did not hear her or he did not care to respond. He did not slow down for Alice but disappeared into the long hallway that she was now trapped in.

"Boys!" she sighed in frustration. "A paradox? The worse that it is, the better it becomes…"

Doors of all shapes and sizes lined the hall but when Alice tried to open them to see where White had disappeared to, she found that every last one of them was locked. The teen became very frustrated. First the riddle then doors placed in such a fashion when it was obvious that nobody was meant to open them.

Continuing down the hall, she came to a large round room with a glass table at the center. Atop the table lay a very small golden key, too small to fit into any of the doors she had passed.

"Curiouser and curiouser," she muttered to herself.

"Not curious at all," said a voice from behind her. Alice turned quickly to see who had been watching her, but she saw no one there. "Pun, you stupid girl, the answer is pun."

"I – I beg your pardon?" Alice asked, still trying to see where the voice was coming from.

"_Three little letters, a paradox to some. The worse it is, the better it becomes_. It's a pun," the voice said.

"Of course," Alice whispered to herself. "But why – excuse me, but who are you?"

"Well, right now I am not a jar," the voice replied.

"Well, that certainly narrows it down," Alice replied sarcastically.

"I did not say that I was never a jar, though. I was a jar just moments before you walked in on me."

Alice was completely befuddled. How could something be a jar one moment, then not be a jar the next? It was logically impossible!

"A jar? A jar…ajar!" she had solved the riddle. "Ajar! You're a door! But wait, doors can't talk."

"Perhaps I'm not speaking to you. Perhaps this is all a figment of your imagination," the voice said. "But then again, perhaps not. Are you going to use that key to open me or not?"

"I can't find any door that the key unlocks. Which door are you?"

"Look under there," the voice ordered.

After looking under the table, Alice concluded that there was nothing else to look under in the atrium. "Under where?"

The voice let out a small giggle and Alice had realized what she had just said. "Oh yes, very mature."

"I'm the least mature door in this entire hall," the voice boasted proudly. "The smallest, too, and quite hidden away from the rest."

Alice turned and turned, looking for the door that was speaking to her. She became annoyed with it's ego as it taunted her. "You're ice cold, kid. Ice cold." Moving around the hall, she continued to play its' game. "Warmer, warmer," he teased, but never did she find the door she was looking for. She was about to give up when she noticed a note on the glass table. She had sworn that the only thing on the table was the key. It was if the note had appeared out of thin air.

"How strange!" she wondered, picking up the note to read.

Girls as beauteous as you are rare

Flirt with the door if you dare.

If you do, his whereabouts you'll find

And catch up to me in no time!

The note was signed with a small picture of a rabbit, the same rabbit she had seen on White's shirt just a few moments earlier. Alice glanced skeptically at the note. Was White seriously suggesting that she flirt with a door? With nothing to lose, Alice sighed and began to speak.

"You know, I've never met a door as clever as you are."

"There isn't a door anywhere that is my equal!" it boasted.

"No, I don't suppose there is. I bet you're a very handsome looking door, too," she continued.

"I am."

"Oh, how I wish I could see the handsome door that outwitted me!" Alice feigned. "It would mean so much to someone as frumpy as me."

"Come, come, my dear. You are the farthest thing from frumpy," the door said, softening.

"You really think so?"

"I know so," the voice replied.

"I guess it's a shame I'll have to settle for one of these other doors," she sighed. "Well, it was nice talking to you, door. Goodbye."

As she turned to walk back down the hall, the voice called for her to stop. "Wait! Come back! Look behind the curtain."

Behind the glass table, Alice could see a large, burgundy drape hung from the wall. She scolded herself for not seeing it before. _How could I have been so blind?_

Taking the key in her hands, she pushed aside the curtain to reveal a tiny door, barely big enough for a mouse to fit through. The door had the face of a teenage boy that was etched into the wood and it was the face that spoke to her.

"Go ahead, open me up," he said.

Needing no further prompting, Alice knelt down, plunged the key into the doorknob, turned it, and swung the small door open. Inside there was the loveliest garden that Alice had ever seen. She longed to get out of the hall and into the garden to walk amongst the flowers and feel the soft, warm grass beneath her feet.

"Looks like you're too big," the door said finally. "How are you supposed to get through when you're that size?"

"I don't know, alright!" Alice said, slamming the door shut.

"OUCH!" The face contorted in pain. "How would you like it if someone swung you around, slamming to into your frame!"

"Sorry," Alice apologized, not totally wholeheartedly. "But what am I to do now?"

Alice stood back up, defeated, and headed back toward the center of the room. There, on the table, was a vial filled with a deep purple liquid. "This definitely wasn't here two minutes ago," she said. She placed the key down to examine the little glass bottle carefully. As she lifted the vial, she saw that it had two simple words written on it: DRINK ME.

Perhaps it was because she was so frustrated or perhaps it was because she thought that maybe, somehow, this was all a dream that she unstopped the vial and downed its contents in one swig.

The liquid tasted pleasant enough. It seemed to be a mixture of flavors; she seemed to taste her favorite tea and a cherry Danish, all in one gulp. No sooner had she thought about the liquid's taste then she began shrinking.

Smaller and smaller Alice became. Her clothes melted right off of her as she shrunk. _Oh dear_, Alice thought, _I hope nobody sees me!_

She stopped growing when she was around ten inches tall, the perfect height to fit through the door. "I see that we've solved our little height problem, have we? Yes, I like you much better this way. I must say, your wardrobe has improved." Alice made an attempt to cover herself as the door chuckled and looked her over. "Yes, a definite improvement. While I would love to stare at you all day, don't you have a garden to get to?"

"Oh yes! The garden!" Alice looked around her for the key but, alas, she had left it atop the table, a table that was not much too high for her to reach. "No!"

Alice tried to climb up the legs of the glass table, but they were round and smooth and she found herself constantly slipping. After five minutes, Alice had tired herself out and had lost all hope in getting to the garden.

_What am I to do now? White is gone, the door is ogling me, and I have no way of getting out of this hall!_

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small blue cake. The cake simply said EAT ME and, like the liquid in the vial, she did just that.


	2. The Pool of Tears

**I couldn't wait to post Chapter 2...hope you like it! Please R&R**

Within moments of eating the cake, she began shooting upward toward the ceiling of the atrium.

"Oh no, no, no!" Alice cried. But her body did not listen and continued to grow until she bumped her head on the high ceiling. Alice was now nine feet tall.

"There's no hope, now! I'll never get into the garden." As sad as she was, Alice began to cry, something she rarely took the time to do. Her large tears pooled at her feet.

"Oh, look at me! I'm blubbering like a baby," she said to herself.

"You're much too big to be a baby," someone said. Alice looked toward her feet and saw none other than White. "And much too beautiful."

Alice had momentarily forgotten her nakedness in light of a new crisis, but she quickly realized what White was looking at from his low vantage point. Quickly moving her hands to cover her privates, she looked angrily at the boy.

He pulled out his pocket watch, unfazed by Alice's irritation. "Hmm, the Duchess. Won't she be savage if I've kept her waiting." As he was replacing his watch, a pair of gloves and an old fan fell out of his pocket.

"If you please, sir-"

White looked up at her again and, without another word, took off into the corridor.

"Oh, of course you'd go running off again," she said, her hands falling to her sides. "Things are so very different here. I suppose if everything else is different, I must be different too."

Alice ran through everything that she had experienced in this strange land. First, she had talked to White, who seemed to disappear faster than a frightened lark. Then, she'd found a key that unlocked a talking door. Next, she drank an elixir that shrunk her and finally, she ate a cake that made her a giant. Through everything, she thought, she had remained quite the same. She was still Alice.

She bent down to pick up the fan and the pair of gloves that White had dropped. "I do hope he needed these so he can come back and retrieve them. I'm quite tired of being alone in here."

While she was talking, she somehow managed to put the gloves on, even though they were obviously much too small for her large hands. All of a sudden, Alice began to shrink. When she was approaching the size of the glass table, she realized that it was the fan that was causing her to grow smaller. Alice dropped it quickly, but not quickly enough for she was now smaller than she had been before.

"Welcome back," the door said to her. "But I say, I remember you much taller…I hope you know how to swim."

Alice huffed and wondered what the door may have meant by his last comment. Before she had moved an inch, she was hit by a large wave of salt water. The waves consumed her whole body and Alice struggled to breathe. She was tossed about quite harshly and thought, _Of all of the ironic ways to die, I chose to be drowned in my own tears. Perfect_.

Alice waved her arms around frantically but she soon became tired, too tired to continue to flap. She took her last gulp of air and sunk deep down into the water. As her eyes began to close, she felt a pair of strong arms pull at her naked waist.

She sputtered and gasped for breath as she felt pressure on her chest. Somebody had given her CPR to bring her back to consciousness. Alice opened her eyes cautiously and she saw before her the most beautiful teenage boy she's ever laid eyes on looming above her, perhaps more beautiful than White. He was a different type of beautiful, though, very tanned and muscular with chocolate eyes and midnight hair. And, like Alice, the boy was naked.

When Alice realized that both were in a state of indecency, she moved from underneath him.

"Ne vous inquiétez pas, la belle dame. Vous êtes en sécurité," he said to her in a deep voice.

Alice tried her hardest to translate what the boy had said. She'd studied French for years, but never quite got the hang of speaking it. "Qui êtes-vous?" she asked him uncertainly.

"Mon nom est Souris. And I do speak English," he said with a smile.

"Ah, yes, that's good. Now, would you mind telling me where I am?" she asked Souris.

"Pays des merveilles. You are in Wonderland," he responded, looking her in the eye.

Alice was rather pleased that his eyes did not wander down her naked body. Her eyes, however, were not as well trained. _Stop it!_ she admonished herself. _Look at his face!_

"I see. And why are you not wearing any clothes?"

"I could ask you the same question, mon amour," he replied, finally looking her up and down. "Not that I'm complaining."

Blushing, Alice replied, "Is there anything for me to wear or dry off with? I'm getting rather cold."

"I can tell," he said, moving behind her and brushing her left breast. "Your friends give you away."

Alice had never been touched there by anyone and was not sure if she should be flattered or insulted. Souris' warm hand felt amazing on her chest and, without thinking, Alice pushed herself further into his hand while melting into his chiseled chest. He kneaded the soft flesh and then moved his attention to her right breast. _What would Dinah think of me?_ Alice thought.

Before she had the chance to extract herself from Souris' grasp, he let go of her. "Nous devons nous arrêter maintenant, l'amour. We have company."

And, sure enough, the pool was filled with all sorts of people wearing the most curious swimming suits. They each filed onto the bank where Alice and Souris were standing. They were no longer alone.


	3. A CaucusRace and a Long Tale

**Sorry it took so long to post the next chapter! Hope you like it!**

Like Alice, all of the visitors were wet. Their suits clung to them in a most unsavory fashion and they all looked rather uncomfortable. In addition to discomfort, Alice could read the emotion of anger on their faces. She rather hoped that they were not angry with her.

All of the sudden, each of them began stripping. From the young children to the old men, their suits came sloshing off. Within a matter of seconds, everyone standing on the bank of the pool was completely naked, but nobody seemed to be upset by each others nudity.

"Cover up, girl! Where is your modesty?" an elderly woman said to her.

Alice was taken aback by the woman's order. Why was she the only one that needed to be covered up? "P-pardon me?"

"You are in the presence of Wonderland's finest athletes," she said, sticking her nose so high in the air that Alice thought it might leave earth's atmosphere.

"I beg your pardon, ma'am," Alice said insincerely.

"Ne vous inquiétez pas, l'amour. It does not matter. Now, friends, how shall we get dry?" Souris asked the group, keeping Alice close to his side.

"I don't suppose you have any towels," she asked, sinking further into her savior's side.

A sudden cry of outrage rang out along the bank. Young and old, everyone was gesticulating wildly in her direction as they yelled insults at her. "You stupid girl! How could you even begin to think that shards of cloth could-"

"Lory," Souris said to her with a warning look.

"If you please, Miss Lory, towels dry us quite nicely where I'm from," Alice squeaked.

"Hmm, well I'm older than you, and must know better," Lory told her, inching closer and closer to her hiding place.

"But just because you are older doesn't mean-"

"Il est une cause perdue, mon cher. Don't bother arguing with her; you'll never win," Souris whispered to her. "Friends, sit down and I will make us all dry."

Alice wondered how on earth this boy – this very, very attractively naked boy – was going to make everyone on the bank dry when he had asked them all to sit down. It seemed logically impossible; for people to dry, they must either move around or use a towel. It was common knowledge…or so she thought.

"This is the driest thing I know: There was once a couple who lived in a tree. They were so in love they could not stop copulating. One day, as they were making deep, passionate love in their nest high in the tree-"

Alice began to laugh at what she thought was a rather clever joke on Souris' part. Her laughter was masked, however, by the groans and grumbles of those around her. Was it not funny? Alice did not understand anything that these strange people did. She hoped that Souris would take her away from all of the madness.

"Ugh," Lory said in obvious disgust. "We've heard this one already. Last time we were still as wet as we were to begin with!"

"Alice, mon amour, please tell them that you were beginning to dry as I told my story," he prompted her.

"I was as wet as ever," said Alice in a melancholy tone. "It doesn't seem to dry me at all."

"Wha' we need is a Caucus-race," a young boy said. "Tha' would ge' us dry quick, i' would."

"An excellent proposition, Dodo!" someone exclaimed.

"That isn't very nice, to call him names," Alice said aloud.

Souris laughed. "No, no, no. Son nom est Dodo! That's his name, love."

"Oh," she said, blushing. "What is a Caucus-race?"

"Well, the bes' way o' explainin' i' is ta do i'," Dodo told her. "Come on!"

Without warning, all of the people on the bank began running. Some ran fast, some ran slow, but nobody seemed particularly interested in actually going anywhere. Alice was at an utter loss for words. Souris clung to her arm and pulled her into the race at a rather slow pace.

What she couldn't believe was the fact that these were supposedly the best athletes Wonderland had to offer. They didn't seem to have any rules, and what are games without rules? What are athletes without games? _Curiouser and curiouser_, Alice thought yet again.

After a half-hour stroll, Alice found herself back where she began, surrounded by panting men and women who were exhausted from the race they had just finished. Finally, they were all completely dry.

"The race is over!" Dodo announced, the last to strut up to the crowd. "Everybody won, an' all mus' 'ave prizes."

"Who brought the prizes?" Lory asked.

"Why, she did, o' course," Dodo said, pointing directly at Alice.

"Me?" she asked, pointing at her own chest. "But, I don't-"

"Why didn't you bring the prizes, mon amour?" Souris asked, sounding hurt. "Je pensais que nous allions être amoureux. We cannot be together."

"But – but, I didn't know I was supposed to bring anything!" Alice cried. "Nobody told me!"

"She wins!" Lory exclaimed.

"Wh-what?"

"Bring out her prize!" Lory continued without acknowledging Alice's confusion.

No sooner had Lory made the decree then a large box was carried out from behind a boulder. The young girls carrying it looked up sheepishly at Alice before they laid the box at her feet. They were the first people Alice had met that day that seemed ashamed of their nakedness. As Dodo's eyes looked them over hungrily, Alice opened her prize.

"Why, it's a dress!" She pulled a scarlet red silk dress from the cardboard and held it up. The silk was covered with the most abnormal lace that Alice had ever laid her eyes on. It seemed to be a pattern of the suits in a deck of cards. Each was distinguishable: hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades.

"It should fit perfectly!" she said finally. "Thank you!"

Alice felt relieved as the cool fabric touched her skin. The dress did fit her perfectly, as if it had been tailor-made. She was finally clothed.

"Vous avez été beaucoup plus intéressante lorsque tu étais nu," Souris said.

"I don't know what that means," Alice said, looking back at him.

"Il fait chaud pour vous," Dodo added.

"Ou suis-je froid pour elle?" Souris asked.

"Oh, il fait froid," the boy said.

"Right," Alice said, looking at them skeptically. "Oh, I do wish Dinah were here to help me with my French," she said to herself.

"And who is Dinah?" Lory asked.

"Oh, she's my best friend," Alice said eagerly. "She wouldn't fancy this place much, though. She's very concerned with order and this place is a little backwards, if you ask me."

A large harrumph sounded throughout the crowd. Finally, they had been insulted enough to begin to leave. Souris was one of the first to hustle off, claiming that he had other girls to see, or something of the sort, in French. Lory and her band of trusty followers were close behind him. Her nose was, once again, stuck in the air. After everyone else had left the beach, Dodo finally stalked off.

"I' was fun, yeah?" he said as he departed.

_I wish I wouldn't have mentioned Dinah_, Alice thought. _Now everybody is gone and I have no idea where I'm going_.

Suddenly, Alice heard footsteps coming toward her. She hoped that it was Souris who had changed his mind about leaving her. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your point of view, Souris was not the person that appeared.


	4. The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill

The bank, which had been kissed by the sun's rays merely moments ago, was now encased in a thick fog. Alice heard footsteps approach and tensed up. She had no earthly idea who was coming toward her.

Finally, a figure began to emerge from the thick mist.

"Hmmm, now where could those have run off to?" a very familiar voice said. Alice recognized him; her heart was racing. White had returned.

He was looking down, searching under objects that were obviously too small to hide anything. His already-tousled hair became more askew as he sifted through flotsam that had been jetted from the sea. Obviously very preoccupied, he never spotted Alice who was standing less than five feet from him.

"The Duchess will have my head if I don't find them," he muttered. Surprisingly, he didn't sound afraid. It seemed as though this Duchess wanted his head on a regular basis.

Alice was very intrigued with White's odd manner of searching and had not realized how rude she was being by not offering him her aid. She, too, began searching for whatever her companion was looking for.

As Alice was sorting through a pile of seaweed, she felt something rub against her silk-covered backside. "I beg your pardon!"

White jumped back from her, clutching his chest as if he were genuinely taken by surprise. As the shock wore off from his face, a large smirk appeared. "Why, Mary Ann, what are you doing out here?"

"What? White, are you feeling alright?" she asked him.

"Oh, lovely, only I can't seem to find a pair of gloves and a fan that I have misplaced," he explained. Suddenly, he grabbed the girl and dipped her as if they were dancing. "But none of that matters now that you are here, Mary Ann."

"Erm, White, I think you're-"

He shushed her. "Don't speak," he said in a deeper voice than she had ever heard escape from him before. Before Alice knew what was happening, White had leaned down and touched his lips to hers.

Alice thought about breaking the kiss, but she was enjoying herself too much. It really was a rather lovely kiss. She pulled White closer to her, held him tighter in her dipped position. This seemed to encourage him because his tongue was now prodding at her lips, seeking entry. Without hesitation, Alice gave him access.

Suddenly, White had lifted her back into a standing position. Her head was rushing because of the sudden movement and lack of oxygen. Her hands found the bottom of his t-shirt and reached to touch his skin. She was mesmerized by the entire situation. Not only was she kissing a man who looked incredibly sexy with his clothes on, but she was kissing a man who, most likely, looked much more sexy with his clothes off; Alice felt rock hard abs underneath the tee. His hands also crept up slowly, moving the hem of her dress upward.

"Stop! White, stop!" she said breathlessly, breaking their kiss and moving her dress back into place.

He muttered something under his breath which sounded very much like, "tease," and straightened himself out. Grinning, he said, "Now, Mary Ann, go back to the house and fetch me a fresh pair of gloves and a fan. Quickly, go!"

He stood there expectantly, pointing toward Alice's left. She looked at him incredulously. Was he seriously suggesting that she do his bidding?

"GO!" he yelled with so much force that Alice was actually afraid of him. She ran quickly in the direction he pointed, not stopping to explain the mistake he had made by assuming she was this Mary Ann.

Alice found it rather uncomfortable running in her bare feet, her dress flying up in the wind. Lucky for her, there was a house not very far away. It was a small, cottage-looking home made of stone whose walls were covered in ivy. A bright brass plate was found on the short stone wall surrounding the house which read "W. Rabbit."

She did not bother knocking on the front door, but went right in to look for what White needed. Alice hurried through the house looking for the gloves and fan, hoping that she would not come across the real Mary Ann. _If I were White, where would I keep a fan and a pair of women's gloves?_ she asked herself.

Climbing up the stairs, she found herself facing two doors. The first was unlocked, so she entered. The room was rather large with deep red walls, the same color as the dress she was now wearing. The room was messy, with books and clothes strewn about on the floor. On one wall was a king-sized canopy bed whose fluffy white comforter was embroidered with hearts. Alice sank into the bed and tested how comfortable it was. Resting her head on the pillow, she realized that something was being kept on the inside of the pillowcase.

Reaching below her head, she extracted a small journal. His name, White, was printed neatly across the cover, along with his signature rabbit symbol. Alice knew it was wrong to read someone else's personal thoughts, but she could not help herself from peeking into White's head.

"The Duchess visited Her Majesty today. She shared that the two of them are expecting her to come soon. It is my job to intercept her. It won't be a difficult task, but I'm afraid of what the Queen will do with her once she has arrived."

Before Alice could read any more, she heard a noise below her. She quickly replaced the book, got up from the bed, and continued to search for the gloves and fan. Across from the bed she noticed a dresser, but it was filled with nothing but t-shirts and jeans.

Finally, Alice decided that she ought to try looking in the other upstairs room. There was a drastic difference in the keeping of the two rooms. Unlike the bedroom, this room was immaculate; there wasn't a single thing out of place. It was not a bedroom, though, because there was no bed in sight. The white room held only one piece of furniture, a round table in the middle of the room which held multiple pairs of gloves and a few fans. There was a fireplace, but as the weather was much too warm for a fire, the dry logs sat neatly unused. On the mantle were a huge gilt-framed mirror and a bottle of shimmering golden liquid.

Grabbing one pair of gloves and a fan, Alice went to explore the bottle on the mantle. DRINK ME, it said. Alice was rather parched and was not thinking of the mishaps she had earlier experienced with bottles such as this. _This should be saf_e, she thought, _if it is in someone's home_.

As soon as Alice had tasted the first drop of liquid, she began to grow. Her dress was ruined before the time she had even downed half of the bottle. She barely fit in the room. She was so large that she had to stoop to avoid breaking her neck. The table had been pushed over by her enormous legs and the gloves and fans were scattered across the floor. Still, she continued to grow. She had to lay down to fit, one foot up the chimney by the time she had stopped growing.

"What will I do? I can't get out of here!" Alice cried. "Oh, at home I never used to have this problem, getting bigger and smaller all of the time. I thought this sort of thing only happened in the fairy tales I read as a child, but here I am in the middle of one!"

Suddenly, Alice heard a voice calling outside of the window. "Mary Ann! Mary Ann, where are those gloves?" White rushed up the stairs and tried to open the door, but it opened inward and Alice's elbow was pressed up tightly against it.

There was a loud clank outside of the room's window and Alice saw that a ladder had been leaned against the house; White meant to gain entrance through the window. Hearing a cry escape his lips, Alice reached her large arm outside the window and caught White as he fell. She dropped him softly on the ground.

"Pat! Pat! Where are you?" White called.

"Diggin' fer apples, sir," a new voice said.

"Digging for apples, my ass," she heard White say. "Pat, what's in the window?"

"It's an arm, sir," he said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world to have a giant arm hanging out of an upstairs window.

"That's impossible. No arms are that size," White scolded him.

"Well, watcha wan' me ta say, sir? Tis' an arm," Pat responded.

"What is an arm doing there?" White asked. "Go and take it away."

Alice wished that she could be taken away. There was no way that this Pat fellow could get her out of the mess that she was in.

There was a great deal of indistinct yelling before Alice heard, "Well, Bill's go' the otha ladda. Bill! Go on, kid, ge' down the chimney."

_So they're sending someone down the fireplace? Oh, that won't do, my foot is there!_ Alice thought. She soon felt something fall on her toes and she moved her foot to try to make room for him. Unfortunately, Alice moved her feet with such force that Bill was sent shooting back up the chimney.

"There goes Bill," White said, sounding amused. "Go on and catch him by the hedge. Hmm, I suppose we'll have to burn the house down. Such a nice house. What a pity."

"Don't you dare burn this house down while I'm in it, White," Alice yelled out to him.

No sooner had Alice spoken when a shower of pebbles came raining down on her. They were thrown with such force that they pelted Alice, leaving many small red marks on her skin. "Ouch!" she exclaimed, and the pebbles had stopped being thrown.

Before Alice's very eyes, the pebbles began to shape shift into small cakes. _Maybe these will make me small again_, Alice said. She ate the cakes and waited. Smaller, smaller, and smaller Alice got until she was finally able to fit back through the door. She ran down the stairs and out into the front yard which was crowded with White's many servants and the master himself. They all became silent when she joined them.

"What'dya kick me for?" a young boy asked. Alice assumed it was Bill.

"I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to!" she apologized.

She finally noticed that all of the other servants were closer to her age and became very aware of her nakedness. They were all staring at her hungrily, White most hungrily of all.

Covering herself up, she ran away from the group into a nearby wood. _The first thing I need to do is grow my normal size again, then get some clothes. I think I ought to find my way to the garden, then I should be alright_, Alice thought.

Suddenly, she heard a loud bark come from above her. Looking up, she saw a humungous puppy standing above her. Alice had been afraid of dogs since she was a little girl and was terrified of the beast looming over her. Thinking quickly, Alice picked up a twig and threw it as far away from her as she could. As soon as the dog bounded after the stick, Alice ran as far and as fast as she could to get away from the monster.

"That could have been horrible!" she said aloud. "Now, I need to get back to my normal size. I've grown after I have eaten something, so I must find something to eat that will make me big again."

She searched around the forest floor, but could not find anything that looked like it would take her back to her normal size. Finally she came upon a large mushroom. Alice could only see the bottom of it and thought that maybe something on top would make her big again.

Building a make-shift stepstool out of some twigs, Alice climbed up to the top of the mushroom and came face to face with another teenage boy. He was not as attractive as the others she had met, though. This boy had very pale skin with dark circles under his eyes. His mud-brown hair was wildly out of place and he was wearing very beat-up clothes. Alice sniffed the air and let out a cough. He was also smoking a joint.

He took no notice of her or of anything else around them.


	5. Advice from a Caterpillar

**Sorry, I had a snow day today and I just felt creative. Hope you like these two chapters! Thanks for the reviews!**

After a few minutes of Alice standing silently on the edge of the mushroom, the boy finally looked at her. He looked her up and down without taking the joint out of his mouth.

Finally, after several moments, he took the joint out and asked, "Who are you?"

Alice was a little frightened by the boy's critical tone but told herself that he was most likely as high as the sky she could barely see through the forest's thick cover. "I – I'm not really sure," she stammered, coughing again.

"What do you mean by that?" he asked, taking another long drag.

"Well, I'm not really myself, you see," she tried to explain.

"I don't see," he said.

"Well, I've been changing so much today, getting bigger and smaller, being clothed and naked-"

"THAT, I see," he told her, his eyes lazily drifting up and down her form.

"This place is just so very confusing," she finally mused.

"It isn't," he told her, inhaling from the joint.

"Well, maybe when you start changing, maybe when you grow up a little, you will!" she said accusingly. She marched up to him, took the joint from between his lips, and crushed it on the mushroom.

He stood up angrily and moved in closely to Alice's face. "WHO ARE YOU?" he yelled. They were back to the beginning of the conversation.

Alice refused to back down to him and yelled, "I think you ought to tell me who YOU are, first!"

He backed off from her as if she had taken him aback. "Well, why?" he asked.

Alice was quite finished talking to such a rude, disgusting boy and turned to climb back down off of the mushroom. Before she made it to the edge, the boy called after her. "Wait! Come back! I have something important to say."

She didn't know what made her turn around, but she did. She stood facing him with her arms crossed.

"Keep your temper," he told her, striding up to play with her hair.

She was furious. How dare he insult her like that, then have the audacity to touch her? "Is that all?" she asked, removing his hand from her hair.

"No," he said softly, resuming his play. He stroked it gently for a while, then cupped Alice's cheek. "You think you've changed, do you?" he asked finally, moving away from her to sit down. He took another joint from his pocket and lit it.

"Yes, I have," she replied.

"Prove it," he commanded her.

"I'm not sure how I might go about doing that," Alice said. "I haven't any way to show you what I used to be, you see."

"I don't see," he said again. "You said you changed sizes. What size do you want to be?"

"Oh, I'm not particular as to size," Alice hastily replied, "only one doesn't like changing so often, you know."

"I don't know," he responded.

Alice was wondering why she had not left the boy when she could have. He was contradicting everything she was saying. She found him quite disagreeable and was quickly losing her temper.

"Do you like the size that you are now?" he asked, taking another drag.

"I'd prefer to be a bit taller," she told him. "What am I now? Three inches tall? It's such a dreadful height to be."

"No, it isn't!" he said, obviously offended. He stood to show Alice that he was three inches tall, exactly.

"I didn't mean to offend. Here, everyone is offended so easily," Alice mused.

"You get used to it," he said, slowly sitting back down.

He smoked more and more without saying anything to Alice. She had half a mind to cover herself, for she knew that he was looking at her, but decided against it. _He's already seen my naked_, she reasoned. _There's no reason to cover myself now. I'll just wait until he says something else. If he doesn't say anything in_-

She could not finish her thought, for the boy began shining. It was as though the sun was directly behind him. His glow became so bright that Alice was forced to look away. When she looked up again, the boy had transformed into someone much, much better looking. The boy's hair was still brown, but instead of being mussed, every strand was in place. His bangs were swept across one side of his face. The dark circles under his eyes had disappeared and were replaced with flawless tan skin. His scrawny physique was now muscular and fit.

"One side will make you grow taller, one side will make you grow smaller," he said in a much deeper and more confident voice.

_One side of what?_ Alice thought to herself.

"One side of the mushroom, of course," he said.

It was Alice's turn to be taken aback. She had thought that only White was able to hear what she thought in this world. Could this boy, too? If he could, then maybe everyone could. When she turned to ask him which side was which, he was gone. She could not see him anywhere.

Finally, she broke off a piece of each side of the mushroom and went about testing which side would, indeed, make her taller. She took a small bite of the right side and was instantly no bigger than the head of a pin.

"Well, that wasn't right," she said to herself. "At least I can correct it with a bit of the left side."

As soon as she bit into the other side, she began to grow. Unfortunately for Alice, her neck grew twice what any of her other body parts did. Her head was above the treetops and she craned her neck to see the rest of her body. Unfortunately, she came face to face with a boy playing in a tree house.

"AHHHHH!" he screamed when her giant head and long neck came into view. As he was trying to rush down the ladder, he fell with a great thud.

"Oh dear, are you alright?" she asked him. "I'm so sorry for frightening you!"

Still screaming, the boy ran off and left Alice by herself. Moments later he returned, though, with a much older boy. His hair was as bright as a flame, and was just as red. Chocolate eyes glared up at her as he held the little boy's hand.

"What do you think you're doing, scaring a little kid like that?" he yelled up at her.

"I beg your pardon, sir, but I didn't mean to scare him," she said, giving him an awkward curtsey. She was not as coordinated as she usually was because of the length of her neck.

"What are you?" he asked, looking at her askance.

"Why, I'm a girl, of course. My name is Alice. I'm seventeen," she told him.

"A likely story indeed. I've seen a great deal of girls and none of them had necks such as yours," he replied.

Alice was frustrated, something she had been quite a lot recently. Was it possible for one person to agree with her? This strange land of Wonderland was not treating her very well and Alice was quite ready to make her way home.

"If you have no business here, go away!" he yelled up to her.

"Yeah, and put some clothes on, you weirdo," his little brother added.

With a great huff, Alice stomped away, shaking the ground violently as she did. _I hope I made them fall over_, she thought, offended that the boy had dismissed her so rudely.

Alice then remembered that she could get herself back to her right size because she still had some of the mushroom left. Taking small bites of both sides, she shrank and grew until she became just the right size.

It was an odd feeling, to finally be the right size again. Alice had to become accustomed to being her normal height all over again. _It's as if I've just had a major growth spurt. I feel so queer_, she thought.

Part one of her plan was complete. She began wondering where she might be able to find some clothes and get directions. Out of nowhere, a small house appeared in front of her. Unfortunately, she was much too tall to fit in it, so she began to eat a little of the right side of the mushroom. When she was nine inches tall, she headed off toward the house, confident that she would make progress by talking to its occupants.


	6. Pig and Pepper

**Thanks for all of the positive feedback! Let me know what you think of this one, okay?**

Before Alice had time to approach the house, somebody rushed past her, holding a letter high over his head, waving it in the air like a child. The man was dressed in a peculiar white garment, something Alice expected dated back to the Middle Ages. Small, red hearts adorned his poncho, similar to those on White's comforter. He quickly knocked on the door, which was opened by a man dressed in servants' clothes.

"For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen to play croquet," the delivery man said, handing him the letter.

"From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet," the servant repeated in a slow, low voice. He began to quickly bow to the other man, but instead bumped heads with him. They hit with such force that both men fell to the floor, knocked unconscious.

Alice began to giggle. She cupped her hand over her mouth just in case the men woke up. She didn't want them to think her rude, even though the entire exchange was a bit ridiculous. Stepping over both men, Alice knocked timidly on the door.

Laughter. Alice heard laughter behind her and realized that both men were sitting up, looking at her. Their laughter, though, wasn't as little as Alice's had been; these men were positively guffawing. The servant pushed the delivery man to the ground with an easy shove and he began to roll around on the ground. The men carried on and on, quite to Alice's disproval.

"What?" Alice demanded with her hands on her hips.

"You're-" laugh, "-knocking!"

"Yes, and what of it?" she said, tapping her foot to show her annoyance.

"Oh, nothing-" laugh, "-it's no use, for two reasons," the servant said, holding up three fingers. "First, because I'm out here with you-" laugh, "-so there's no way I could possibly answer the door. And second-" laugh, "-they're making way too much noise in there, so they couldn't hear you." At this, the men began to howl with laughter again and Alice decided to take matters into her own hands.

Putting her ear to the door, Alice could hear the sound of shouting, sneezing, and dishes breaking every now and again. The shouting became more violent every few seconds, as if some man and his wife were having an argument.

"If you please, sir," Alice said, backing away from the door, "how am I to get in?"

"I suppose-" laugh, "-I shall go inside tomorrow."

All of the sudden, the door opened and a plate came flying out the door. It grazed the top of the servant's head and he began laughing all over again. "Or maybe I'll wait until the day after that," he told the delivery man, falling into yet another fit of laughter.

Through all of the hooting and hollering going on behind her, Alice was still trying to determine how she would get into the house.

"Oh, what am I to do!" Alice cried, after knocking on the door several times.

"Anything you like!" the men cried together. Pulling each other up, they put their arms around one another and began to sing what sounded like an Irish drinking song.

"Oh, the days of the Kerry dancing, oh, the ring of the piper's tune, oh, for one of those hours of gladness gone, alas, like our youth, too soon! When the boys began to gather in the glen of a summer's night, and the Kerry piper's tuning made us long with wild delight! Oh, to think of it, oh, to dream of it, fills my heart with tears!" they sang out, dancing a sort of jig. Just when Alice thought they were finished, they began again.

"Was there ever a sweeter Colleen in the dance than Eily More-"

_Ugh!_ Alice thought, _There's no use talking to them! They're perfectly idiotic!_ With that, Alice turned the knob and entered the house.

The short hallway led to a kitchen where two people sat arguing. It was not a husband and wife, as Alice had originally thought; it was a mother and son. In the corner of a room sat a fireplace, where a cook was bent over a pot, stirring what looking like a broth inside of it.

"Achoo!" Alice exclaimed, letting out a large sneeze. There was so much pepper in the air that Alice could hardly breathe, yet the Duchess called out, "MORE PEPPER!"

She had no sooner screeched the order than the cook took out a full sack of pepper and dumped it into the pot, yelling, "PEPPER!"

"Mother! The soup needs no more pepper!" the son roared.

The Duchess took a moment to ponder her son's comment, sneezed, and yelled once more, "MORE PEPPER!"

The cook repeated her process, once again yelling, "PEPPER!" as she dumped a new bag.

"PIG!" the Duchess shrieked at her son. She took a plate of fine China that was sitting next to her on the table and threw it at the cook. "MORE PEPPER!"

"PEPPER!"

"Pardon me, but my name-" Alice began. Unfortunately, she did not get to finish. As soon as she began, the Duchess and her son turned to look at Alice. This seemed like all of the prompting the cook needed to launch her own attack, so she began to throw everything in sight at the two of them.

The Duchess and her son did not attempt to stop the cook. They seemed to pay no attention to her or the pots and pans flying at them, even when they hit them. Instead, they looked at Alice expectantly, waiting for her to finish her sentence.

"Oh! Look out!" Alice screamed, as a large pan came hurdling close to the boy's nose. She ducked quickly to avoid being struck by the object.

"If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around much faster," the Duchess complained.

Her son looked at her incredulously and Alice replied, "Ma'am, I think you seem to be confused. You see, the world spins on its axis-"

"Speaking of axes," the Duchess interrupted, "chop of her head!"

Quite taken aback by the order the Duchess had made, Alice stopped talking. In the corner of her eye, she saw the cook moving toward her with a cleaver in her hands.

"OH MY GOD!" Alice cried, running out of the kitchen. To her surprise, she found the Duchess's son following her.

"I'll meet you outside!" he told her, bounding up the stairs.

Leaping past the servant and the delivery man, who were now singing a slow song in Gaelic, Alice ran into the safety of the woods. Moments later, the son of the Duchess joined her, offering her another dress. This dress, however, was not embroidered with hearts, as Alice had come to expect. The skirt had dangling spade charms on the bottom, the same as those hanging from the neck and the sleeves.

"Sorry, it's all I could find. Mum swiped it from the prisoner," he explained as Alice dressed.

"Er, thanks," Alice said. "I'm Alice. Who're you?"

"My first is twice in apple but not once in tart. My second is in liver but not in heart. My third is in giant and also in ghost. Whole I'm best when I am roast," he replied.

"O-kay?" Alice said slowly.

All of the sudden, the boy began to grunt as they walked. Alice was taught that such things were not polite for young men to do. _If he does it again_, Alice thought, _I shall say something_.

Alas, the boy grunted again and Alice turned to tell him of his rudeness. "I beg your pardon, sir, but-"

She paused mid sentence, for when she turned to look at him, she saw that a pig snout had taken the place of his nose. She was quite appalled. Was he turning into a pig?

As soon as Alice thought the word "pig," the boy fell to the ground and began to contort.

"Oh dear! Help! Help!" she cried out. But nothing could be done for the boy because he had turned into the very thing his mother had called him earlier; he was a fat, smelly, pink pig!

Squealing and grunting, the pig ran off down the path into the forest. _Curiouser and curiouser_, Alice thought. _You know, if all boys could turn into a pig, I think that James Witt ought to_.

James Witt was a boy in Alice's class at school. He was awful to her; he teased her, slammed her locker shut before she was finished with it, and kicked her books to the floor. Alice's mind was filled with thoughts about the boys back at school when something rustled in the trees.

When Alice looked over, she saw yet another teenage boy perched on the bough of a nearby tree. This boy, however, was not as comforting as the others. His jet-black hair was spiked into sharp points, matching the collar he wore around his neck. All of his clothing was as dark as his hair, but was highlighted by several silver chains hanging around his belt.

Alice felt very nervous, for the boy was grinning at her as if he knew some dangerous secret that she did not. Even though she was afraid of him, Alice decided that she must stop and ask for directions anyways, as she forgot to ask the Duchess.

"Excuse me," she said, walking up to him. His smile widened and seemed more malicious to her. "B-but could you p-please t-tell me where I ought to go f-from here?"

"That depends a great deal on where you want to go," he said, reaching one arm down to cup her chin.

"I don't care much-"

"Then it doesn't matter," he said, flipping out of the tree while keeping his hand on her jaw. "My name's Cheshire, but you call me Cheshire."

"Erm, it's – erm – nice to meet you, Cheshire. I just want to go SOMEWHERE," she tried to explain.

He let go of her jaw and strutted around her, "Well, you'll end up somewhere if you keep walking. It's bound to happen."

"Yes, I suppose so. So…what sort of people live around here?" she asked, trying to remain calm as he eyed her hungrily.

"Hatter lives over there," he said, cocking his head to the left. "March Hare lives over there," he said, cocking it to the right. "But they're both mad."

"I shouldn't like to visit anyone who's mad," Alice said, trying not to flinch as Cheshire moved so close behind her that her back was touching his chest.

"Afraid that can't be avoided," he said, lifting her hair off her shoulder. "We're all mad here," he whispered in her ear, his face nuzzled in her neck inhaling her scent.

"I am not mad, sir," Alice told him, moving away slowly.

"You must be," he said, grinning again, "or else you wouldn't have come here."

Alice thought about that for a minute. It was true that she must be a little mad. Why had she followed White into the hole anyway? She didn't know him. It was very foolish of her, and perhaps that made her mad.

"Well, how are you mad?" she asked quietly.

"A dog is not mad. It growls when it's angry and wags its tail when its' pleased. I growl when I'm pleased and wag my tail when I'm angry," he explained, circling her again.

"You haven't got a tail," Alice pointed out.

"Haven't I?" he asked, looking at his backside. He seemed quite surprised that he did not, in fact, have a tail. "Curious. Do you play croquet with the Queen today?"

"I don't-"

"You'll see me there," he said, then disappeared into thin air.

"People come and go so quickly here," Alice said, relieved that she was finally rid of Cheshire.

_If he is going to be playing croquet with the Queen, I shall certainly not go_, Alice thought as she wondered deeper along the path.

All of the sudden, Cheshire appeared right in front of her. She bumped into him and fell backwards onto her bottom. He gave a short laugh, then lifted her up. "By the way, what ever happened to the Duchess's boy?"

"How did you-"

"My dear, the Duchess and I have a very…well, let's just say we're old friends. So what happened to her son?" he prompted.

"H-he turned into a pig," Alice replied.

"I thought he might." And with the same amount of warning, Cheshire disappeared.

Alice waited a moment before she began walking again. _He might pop up again_, she thought, _and if he does, I don't want to be knocked over again_.

_I suppose I shall visit March Hare_, Alice reasoned,_ because mother took me to a hatter once. Awful man. He was mad in my world, so he must be much more mad if he_-

"Did you say pig or fig?"

With a great "Oomph!" Alice fell to the ground, knocked down for the second time by Cheshire. "I said pig," she said from the ground. "And I do wish you'd quit popping up and knocking me over like that. It's rather rude."

Cheshire was smiling. "All right," he said, then disappeared.

She began walking yet again, and soon came to the house that she assumed belonged to the man named March Hare. The house looked rather like a real hare, which Alice thought peculiar. _Oh, how I do wish I would have gone to see the hatter, now!_


	7. A Mad Tea Party

**Sorry I haven't posted in forever. I've been really, really busy. Here it is!**

As Alice drew closer and closer to the house, she could see that there was a large table set up in the front lawn. It was covered by a frayed red cloth and a number of teapots and teacups. It was the oddest set-up Alice had ever seen in a tea party; each of the chairs was a different size and style, as were all of the silverware and teacups.

A small group of odd-looking men occupied one end of the table, but none of the other seats were taken. In a love seat sat a man in a large tattered top hat who looked very familiar to Alice, though she could not remember where she'd seen him before. He was older than any of the boys she had met so far. Scruffier, too. From what Alice could see, his face was covered with brown stubble (the same color as his hair), as if he hadn't had the opportunity to shave in days. Alice could only assume that this man was Hatter who Cheshire told her about.

Sitting next to the man was a stout, balding man who was obviously much older than both of his companions. He sat with his check resting on the table, asleep.

On his other side sat a dark-skinned man, his hair in dreadlocks. He rested his elbow atop the man that was sitting between him and the hatter while he was speaking, occasionally lifting it so he could have a sip of his tea.

Alice approached the group with caution, remembering Cheshire's warning that both Hatter and March Hare were mad. "No room! No room!" the men yelled at her when she caught their attention.

"There's plenty of room," Alice said indignantly, sitting down in a plush green chair, a few seats away from the men.

"Hmm, shall we call a Spade a Spade, Marchy?" Hatter asked.

"Perhaps we should wake Dormy and see what he thinks," March Hare replied, taking another sip of tea. When he set his cup down, both men erupted in laughter, making Alice feel quite uncomfortable because she did not understand the joke.

"What starts with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it?" Hatter asked Alice through fits of laughter.

"Haven't the foggiest," Alice replied, her hands folded carefully in her lap.

Exchanging a glance, Hatter and March Hare called out, "A teapot!" and poured each other another cup of tea.

"Your hair wants cutting," Hatter told her.

"It's rude to make personal remarks," Alice told him, pouring herself a cup of tea.

"It's rude to come to a party uninvited," he retorted, standing up and moving toward her.

"It's rude that you didn't invite me in the first place," she said, also standing to face him off.

"It's rude that-"

"I go in dry and come out wet, the longer I'm in, the stronger I get. What am I?" March Hare asked.

"You told that one yesterday, Marchy," Hatter said, returning to his seat. Alice was grateful for the distraction, for she did not want to get into a fight with anyone who was mad. When one fights with a mad person, Alice was learning, one can never win.

"I believe I can guess that," Alice told him.

"Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?" March Hare asked her.

"Yes," she answered.

"Then you should say what you mean," he told her.

"I do. I mean, I did. I mean what I say, anyways, which is the same thing," she replied.

"Not the same at all!" March Hare responded. "You might as well say 'I hump what I see' is the same as 'I see what I hump.'"

"You might as well say 'I _do_ what I get' is the same as 'I get what I _do_,'" added Hatter.

"You might as well say 'I get a bone when I see' is the same as 'I see when I get a bone,'" Dormouse interjected, waking up in the middle of the conversation.

"It _is_ the same thing with you, though, isn't it Dormouse?" Hatter jested. The men laughed and the Dormouse returned to his nap, snoring.

Alice was thoroughly upset with the way these men were talking, but at least the subject had been dropped. She felt a little self-conscious sitting in silence. Hatter and March Hare seemed totally at ease with the quiet, though, and she did not want to upset them with speaking.

"Dormouse is asleep again," Hatter observed moments later.

"Let's-"

"Yes, let's-"

Alice had no idea what the boys were planning to do, but she found out as soon as Hatter reached for the teapot. He poured the entire thing over the man's bald head. Dormouse quickly sat up and said, "Yes, she is rather pretty, isn't she?"

"I think so, too, Dormy," purred Hatter.

"I quite agree," added March Hare. "What is your name?"

"I'm Alice," she introduced herself.

"Tell me, Alice, what is a pretty Spade like you doing in Heart territory?" Hatter asked her.

"Pardon me, but I have no idea what you are talking about," Alice said.

"You are a Spade, aren't you?"

"Of course she's a Spade, Marchy. Look at her dress!" Hatter said, once again moving in Alice's direction. It didn't seem like he was trying to threaten her, though, only get a better look at her. She nervously sipped her tea as both March Hare and Dormouse joined Hatter in his observation.

"Look," said Alice, her head bent and her cheeks flushed, "I am not a Spade. I'm not anything. The Duchess's son gave me the dress."

"Ahh, yes, the traitor," said Hatter calmly, rubbing the stubble on his chin (which Alice found very attractive).

"Having an affair with the Princess of Spades. Naughty, naughty boy, he is," March Hare added. "But what were you wearing before he gave it to you?"

"Er – you see, I sort of…grew out of my clothes. I didn't have anything to wear, so he gave me this dress," she explained to them.

"So what you're saying is this: You had nothing to wear, the Duchess's son gave you the dress, you think I look sexy when I scratch my chin, and you are not a Spade. Is that correct?" Hatter asked.

"Yes!" Alice quickly replied. "Wait, I mean-"

"That was very sneaky, Hatter," March said, smiling at his friend. "So, what are we to do with you?"

Alice shrugged her shoulders, and Hatter ordered, "Get up." Doing what she was told, Alice felt her dress being yanked from her body. He tried as best she could to cover herself with her hands while the men looked her over.

"Do me a favor, Dormy. Torch this. We don't need any of the Queen's men to come by and find this with us," Hatter said, completely ignoring Alice's nakedness. "Oh, and bring me my kit from inside."

"Wait!" Alice quickly grabbed the pieces of mushroom she had kept in to pocket of the dress.

When Alice had finished, Dormouse slowly moved to take the dress from Hatter and proceeded inside of March Hare's house. A few seconds later, he emerged with a small doctor's bag in his hands. He carried it as if it was sacred, out in front of him, and offered it to Hatter.

"What are you planning, Hatter?" March Hare asked him.

"Well, I work with clothes on a regular basis. I am the best hatter in all of Wonderland, so I don't see why I can't make a decent dress," he explained. "Arms out, please."

Alice was uncertain because her arms were hiding her privates. "Come, come, dear. Out with them," Hatter prompted. She slowly stretched her arms out, allowing Hatter to take measurements of her bust, waist, torso, and height.

"Lovely. This should take no time at all," he commented to himself. Faster than lightning, he grabbed the tablecloth and yanked it out from underneath the pots and cups, spilling nothing in the process. He cut it here and there, creating what Alice could only assume was a new dress.

"So, have you guessed the riddle yet?" March Hare asked, making conversation.

"No, I give up," Alice said, unable to tear her eyes away from Hatter as he worked. "What's the answer?"

"I have no idea."

Alice looked back at March Hare in confusion just as Hatter announced, "Finished! This one should stay with you, no matter what size you happen to be." He slipped the fabric over Alice's head and stood back with March Hare to admire his work while Alice replaced the mushroom bits to the safety of a pocket.

"Oh, Hatter! She could be a royal! It's wonderful!" March Hare exclaimed. March turned toward him and smashed their lips together in an extremely passionate kiss. Hatter reached up and ran his hands through March's dreads, while March Hare's hands were snaking down Hatter's chest toward his waist. March moaned loudly when Hatter turned his attention toward sucking on one of his earlobes. This seemed to encourage Hatter, for he began sucking with more vigor.

Though she would never admit it, Alice was extremely turned on by the scene in front of her. She nearly lost her composure when Hatter began whispering…shall we say "sweet nothings" in March's ear.

Suddenly, the Dormouse cleared his throat, ending the little love session. "We do have a guest, boys," he said sleepily.

"Yes, and I do have something to say to you, March Hare," Alice said, gathering herself together after what she had just witnessed. "I think you could obviously do something better with the time than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers."

"If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn't talk about wasting it," Hatter responded.

_I say that as well! How curious_, Alice thought.

"It's HIM," Hatter added, throwing Alice off guard. "I daresay you've never spoken to Time. He'll do anything you want with the clock as long as you are on good terms with him."

"I suppose I am not on good terms with him," Alice said.

"Neither am I. Such a shame, isn't it?" Hatter asked. "Our quarrel started last year when I was singing in the Queen's court."

Taking Alice completely by surprise yet again, Hatter began to sing.

_Twinkle, twinkle little bat. How I wonder what you're at. Up above the world you fly, like a tea-tray in the sky. Twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, twinkle…_

March Hare had to put his hand on Hatter's shoulder to remind him where he was. "Yes, well, I was hardly through with the first verse when the Queen yelled out 'He's murdering time! Off with his head!'"

"How dreadfully savage!" Alice replied.

"I barely managed to escape," he nodded. "Ever since then, Time has been giving me the cold shoulder. I can't get him to do anything for me anymore. It's always six o'clock, always tea time."

"How awful!" Alice added.

"Unless you like tea," March Hare replied under his breath.

Hatter looked at Alice and, with much gravity, said, "This thing all things devours, birds, beasts, trees, and flowers. Gnaws iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal, slays king, ruins town, and beats high mountains down."

"Let's change the subject," March said cheerfully.

"Who believes that Alice is the ugliest girl he has ever seen?" Hatter asked with a smile.

"Nobody asked your opinion," Alice pouted, obviously offended by what Hatter had asked.

"Who's making personal remarks now?" Hatter joked. "I want a clean-up. Everybody move one space over." Each of the men picked themselves up and moved, and Alice, after much prodding by March Hare, moved as well. She was now sitting on a large bean bag, barely able to see over the table.

Alice began to tell them about how uncomfortable she was in this type of chair, as she was in a dress. "I don't think-"

"Then you shouldn't speak," said Hatter, sipping from the cup that had just been in front of Dormouse.

With a great "humph!" Alice got up from her uncomfortable seat and began to walk away from the group. She would not stand for any more insults.

"'Twas a pleasure," March Hare called after her.

She half-hoped that they would call after her, apologizing for everything that they had said to her, but they did not. Instead, as Alice turned around to take one more look at the motley group, she saw that Hatter and March had resumed their intimacies and had already succeeded in taking each others' shirts off.

Alice thought about staying to see what the pair would do, but thought better of it. She turned and entered the forest once again.

Alice was surprised to see a door in one of the trees and, without thinking, she turned the knob to go in. She found herself in the atrium that she had first encountered in the strange world. There was the table, the small key that rested upon it, and the door to the garden.

_This time, I've got it!_ Alice thought. She grabbed the key, took out a bit of the mushroom that would make her smaller, and ate it. Soon, she was the perfect size to go through the door.

Hatter was true to his word; the dress still fit her perfectly. Happy and clothed for the first time, Alice walked up to the door.

"Welcome back," it said. "I take it you did not drown?"

"Obviously not," Alice said, finally putting the key into the lock. She turned it, opened the door, and walked into the most beautiful garden she had ever seen.


	8. The Queen's Croquet Ground

**I hope people haven't lost interest. Review please!**

Alice wandered around a bit, stopping to admire the beautiful white rose trees the garden seemed to be filled with. As she walked a bit deeper into the maze of rose trees, she saw a group of men painting the roses red.

"Be careful, Five!" one of the men yelled. "You shouldn't go splashing paint around like that."

"It's Seven's fault," Five complained. "He bumped me."

"Yeah, sure, blame me," Seven said, rolling his eyes.

"The Queen sure has. I heard that she wanted your head yesterday," Five retorted.

"Ooh, what for?" the first asked.

"That's none of your business," Seven said.

"Yes, it is his business," Five said, sticking his tongue out at Seven. "It was for listening in on her conversation with the Duchess. You know, I heard they were up to something. They're planning on kidnapping-"

Just then, the first cleared his throat loudly, nodding in Alice's direction. When the men finally noticed her presence, they bowed a deep bow.

Embarrassed, Alice asked, "Excuse me, but why are you painting the roses?"

Seven and Five stayed silent, but the first replied, "Why, the Queen wanted the rose trees to be red, Miss. We put in white ones by mistake. If she ever found out, she would have all of our heads cut off. So what we're trying to do is paint all of the trees before she notices, see?"

Alice did not see. In fact, she could not imagine a woman who would behead someone for a mistake as silly as planting the wrong color rose trees. They were beautiful, so what did it matter?

"The Queen! The Queen!" Five called out, panicked.

The men quickly dropped their paintbrushes and fell to the ground. Alice could not tell if they fell out of fear or out of respect for the approaching Queen. Looking around, Alice was anxious to see the Queen she had heard so much about.

First, Alice saw the Queen's guards, each dressed like the gardeners but carrying various weapons, ranging from spears to giant guns. Next came the Heart children, each skipping, laughing, and playing behind the guards. Occasionally, one of the children would race up to the last guard, poke his backside, and run back to the rest of the family. Alice loved children and it warmed her heart to see these so happy.

After the children were a man and a woman ornamented in red diamonds of all sizes, gazing back every so often at the teenage girl who followed them. She looked to be their daughter, around Alice's age, also decorated in diamonds, and also looking behind her.

Following the girl was a man with sandy hair, dressed completely in red with hearts adorning every cuff of his outfit. He held a pillow with a king's crown and scepter, and was walking next to White, who Alice noticed immediately. They were talking in a hushed voice, as if exchanging secrets that they did not want anyone else to hear. In fact, they were so deep in conversation, White failed to acknowledge Alice at all when they walked by.

Bringing up the rear of the procession was what Alice could only assume to be the King and Queen. Merely by the way the Queen towered over the trembling King, Alice could tell that she held the power in their relationship.

The procession stopped directly in front of Alice and the Queen yelled in the shrillest voice Alice had ever heard. "Who is this?"

White and his companion stopped whispering immediately, as if they had only just found the parade stopped. They looked directly at Alice at the exact moment and for a second, Alice saw fear in White's eyes, something she never thought possible.

"Is she yours, Diamond?" she shrieked accusingly at the couple.

"N-n-no," the man said, bowing his head.

"Idiot!" she yelled, making a motion to smack him, but realized that he was too far away to be reached. "What is your name, child?"

"My name is Alice, so please your Majesty," Alice replied timorously.

"Alice? _The_ Alice?" she said, a look of shock on her face. She looked over at White, who was now as pale as his name, and waited for him to nod before she proceeded. "And who are _these_?"

The Queen was pointing down at the gardeners who had been painting her roses. They were still on their stomach, not looking up even when they were being acknowledged.

"How should I know?" Alice responded. "It's no business of mine."

The Queen looked at Alice in disbelief. Within seconds, disbelief turned into anger and she turned the same crimson that she was wearing. "Off with her head! Off-"

"Consider, dear, what we're dealing with here," the King said suspiciously, narrowing his eyes at Alice. "Think of what's at stake."

He seemed to have a cooling effect on the Queen, and her face turned back to its normal shade. Almost. "Turn them over," she instructed the boy next to White.

He carefully rolled the gardeners over, one by one, with his foot. When they were all faced up, the Queen said, "Get up!"

The men jumped to their feet, all frightened beyond anything that Alice had ever seen before. _And with good reason_, Alice thought. _She was going to behead me not two minutes ago for doing absolutely nothing_.

Each of the men began bowing to the Queen, the King, the boy who had turned them over, White, the Diamonds, the children, and everybody else present, including themselves. Alice could see that they were quaking with fear when they turned to bow to her for the second time that day.

"Stop that!" the Queen ordered. It seemed that for the first time, she was noticing the rose trees around her. "What have you been doing here?"

"If it pleases your Majesty," said Five, kneeling in front of the Queen, "we were trying-"

"I see," she said, looking at the half-painted roses. Picking one, she bellowed, "Off with their heads!" and moved the procession on. All seemed to follow her, except for the guards who were to execute the gardeners.

The men ran behind Alice for protection. "Help us!" Seven cried, grasping Alice's hand.

"I won't let them behead you," she told them. "Of all of the nasty women in the world…" Breaking off the last pieces of mushroom she had, Alice let the men eat. They instantly grew smaller and Alice placed them in a nearby flowerpot.

The guards looked around for a few minutes but when they could not find the men they were looking for, they gave up and rejoined the party. Alice followed them quietly.

"Are their heads off?" the Queen asked.

"Their heads are gone," one of the guards replied. Alice thought the response was very clever of him, as he was not entirely lying to the Queen.

"That's right," the Queen said, satisfied. "Can you play croquet?"

Alice stayed quiet, waiting for the response of the soldiers. They looked at her expectantly and Alice realized that the question was meant for her.

"Yes," she responded truthfully.

"Come on, then," roared the Queen, waving Alice over to join the procession.

"It's a very fine day," said a voice next to Alice. Walking next to her was White, who had a forced grin on his face.

"It is. Where's the Duchess?" Alice asked.

He shushed her quickly, checking to make sure the Queen wasn't listening. "She is under sentence for execution."

"What ever for?" Alice asked.

"She hit the Queen," he said quietly. When Alice let out a little snort of laughter, he said, "Shush! The Queen will hear you! You see, the Duchess came late, and the Queen-"

"Get to your places!" the Queen yelled thunderously, cutting off White. One of the guards pulled Alice away, but she saw White mouth something that looked like "run."

The guard deposited her on the opposite side of the Queen and handed her a live flamingo to use as a mallet before he contorted himself to make an arch in front of her. A hedgehog rolled up in front of her, which she stopped with her foot. This was the most peculiar game of croquet Alice had ever encountered in her entire life (and she did think she had seen some peculiar games).

When Alice began to straighten the neck of her flamingo, like all of the other players were, it would look up at her as if it were begging her not to use it. "I have to," she whispered to it softly, petting its feathers.

Seconds later, a hedgehog rolled next to hers. Looking up, she saw the boy who was carrying the King's crown and scepter running to meet her.

"I'm Jack," he said, extending a hand to her which she shook.

"Are you a friend of White's?" she asked him.

"You could say that," he said, chuckling quietly as if he had just told a joke. "I'm the Prince of Hearts."

"Oh," Alice said humbly. "I apologize for my informality, your Highness."

Again, Jack chuckled. "Don't worry about formality with me, Alice. It's my mother who you should be concerned with."

"Yes, I've noticed," she said, letting out a small laugh of her own. "A bit strict, isn't she?"

"Well, that's the understatement of the century," he said.

Just then, his mother screeched, "JACK! Get over here!" He quickly hit his hedgehog and joined his mother at the West end of the playing field.

Alice had not noticed her hedgehog crawling away during her short conversation with the Prince, but she saw it waddling at full speed into the depths of the garden, as far away from the game as it could. She was secretly glad for it, thinking about how awful it would be to be hit by a flamingo and tossed around a field.

The Queen was calling for decapitations at least once per minute and Alice began to realize how difficult a game of croquet with the Queen was. She became nervous even though she had not yet had a run-in with the Queen. _It could happen any minute_, Alice thought. _And then what would I do? It's a wonder anyone is alive around here with her calling, "Off with his head" so often_.

With a loud crack, Alice found Cheshire standing in front of her, grinning like the madman that he was. "How are you doing?" he asked her, stepping back to see her progress in the game.

Alice put down her flamingo and said, "I'm not doing well at all. My hedgehog ran away while I was talking to the Prince, and I couldn't get my flamingo to cooperate. And what is with these guards as arches? Who is guarding the Queen if all of her soldiers are her playthings?"

"Speaking of, how do you like the Queen?" he purred in her ear.

"Not at all. She's so extremely-" Alice noticed that the Queen was a few paces behind her listening, so she quickly finished, "likely to win, I might as well not even finish the game."

Hearing this, the Queen smiled and moved on.

"Who are you talking to?" the King asked, looking at the boy with great curiosity.

"This is Cheshire," Alice said, introducing him.

"I don't like him. He may kiss my hand if he likes," the King said.

"Rather not," he said, slinking away from the King behind Alice's back where he immediately began fondling her buttocks.

"Don't be impertinent," the King said furiously. "He must be removed. Darling! I wish you to have this boy removed."

Looking bored, the Queen said, "Off with his head," barely getting the words out because she was yawning.

"That's my cue. Goodbye, Alice. And good luck. You'll need it," Cheshire said, and disappeared into thin air.


	9. The Mock Turtle's Story

**I've decided that this is the chapter where I really break away from the book. Haven't received reviews in a while…Pretty please R&R**

When Cheshire was gone, the King and his men looked around frantically, as if the boy might have only become invisible. One by one, the search took them further away from Alice, which was quite alright with her.

"Why hello, my dear!" said a shrill voice from behind her, not moments after Alice had breathed a sigh of relief from being left alone.

She turned slowly, agitated to see who was disturbing her. It was none other than the condemned Duchess herself, wearing the most ridiculous headdress Alice had ever seen in her entire life. The hat was fashioned so it looked just like a giant pair of glasses with chains draped from each side. A large red bow fastened underneath her chin held the headpiece on the Duchess, but gravity seemed to have greater effect and was pulling the right side of the hat down so that the Duchess had to readjust it every few seconds.

_Well, at least she's in a better mood now than she was in her kitchen_, thought Alice.

"You ran off with my son, didn't you dear?" the Duchess said in a sickly-sweet voice, filled with venom. Alice didn't dare look into the woman's eyes for fear that they might burn a hole right through her skin.

"Well, I didn't mean for him to follow me, ma'am," she replied as evenly as she could.

"He did nonetheless, though, didn't he?" she said. "What ever became of him? Is he here?"

"No, ma'am. He – uh – ran off in the woods," Alice said, telling only part of the truth and hoping that the Duchess wouldn't ask any more.

"Did he now. That little rascal never did anything his mommy told him to," the Duchess said callously. Grabbing Alice's chin and forcing it toward her, she said, "You wouldn't do such a thing, would you dear?"

"I-I don't know, ma'am," Alice said, shivering in the icy grasp of the Duchess.

"Well, better you than that Spade whore," the Duchess said under her breath, letting go of Alice's chin so forcefully that she thought it might bruise. "You will one day know what the moral of that is, my dear, and it will not be a pretty day when you do."

Alice walked in silence, wondering just what the Duchess meant by "moral." Wonderland, as far as she knew, had no morals. In fact, while she was in this place, her morals seemed to be diminishing by the second.

"Perhaps there isn't a moral," Alice mused aloud.

"Tut, tut, child! Everything has a moral if you are intelligent enough to find it," the Duchess spat at her.

Suddenly, the Duchess fell to the ground in a low kowtow, both amusing and frightening Alice. (The Duchesses headpiece threatened to fall off and whack Alice as she dropped.) Slightly bemused, Alice looked around to see what had inspired such a behavior and her eyes rested on the prince who stood comfortably at her side.

"Get up, Duchess. Your quarrel is with my mother, not with me," Jack said, not taking his eyes from Alice.

"Yes, your highness. Whatever you say," she said, slowly ascending to her official height.

"I just wanted to be sure that you were treating our guest here with proper respect," he said, finally tearing his eyes away from the girl.

"The moral of that is 'Oh, 'tis love, 'tis love, that makes the world go round!'" the Duchess commented.

"That's enough of that, I think," Jack told her.

The Duchess immediately quieted and the prince returned his gaze to Alice. "How is the game going for you?"

"Not well, I'm afraid," she said, chuckling slightly at her own misfortune.

"Yes, that I can see," he said, laughing with her.

"And the moral of THAT is 'Birds of a feather flock together,'" the Duchess interrupted.

Jack gave the Duchess a warning look and she backed quietly away from the pair. "Alice, I would be honored if you would take a short stroll with me through the garden," he said when the Duchess was completely out of earshot.

Blushing slightly, Alice said, "Of course, your majesty."

"Jack," he insisted.

"Jack."

Taking her arm, the couple walked along the edge of the grassy field to avoid all of the hedgehogs and guards that were moving this way and that until they finally reached the edge of the garden. Jack led them to a bit of shrubbery that was taller than the both of them, creating a maze in the middle of the paradise. The pair didn't talk, but Alice found it to be a comfortable silence. Much more comfortable than the words that next came from Jack's mouth.

"You need to get out of here."

"I beg your pardon?" Alice asked.

"You are in grave danger here. My mother and the Duchess…they've made plans. Plans that involve your capture and death," he explained quickly and quietly.

"I don't understand," Alice said, panicked. "What did I ever do to them?"

"It's nothing that you did," he assured her. "Well, nothing that you've done _yet_, I should say." Alice gave the prince a horribly confused look and he continued. "There's a legend, see, and it says that a girl named Alice will topple the House of Cards."

"So?" Alice asked.

"So, that means that you will destroy the power that my mother has worked so hard to invest in the House of Hearts. She will do anything in her power to stop you. She employed White to capture you and lead you to her," he told her.

"Wh-what?" Alice said, hugging herself. "White? But he said – I thought he-"

As if on cue, White stepped into the maze where Alice and Jack were speaking. Approaching them quietly, it took a few moments of quiet sobbing for Alice to realize that he was there.

"You fucking ass! How could you?" Alice yelled between sobs.

"Alice-"

"I trusted you! I thought that maybe, just maybe, you-"

"Alice-"

"Well, the joke's on me, I suppose. Well done, White. Good show."

"Alice, he never meant to bring you here," Jack said finally.

White's face, which had been turned to the ground while Alice yelled at him, now looked up to meet her softening expression. "You-you didn't?" she asked.

"No," he said softly. "I could never do that to anyone. Especially not to you."

"White has been frequenting your world to check up on you. He was there to make sure you were still safe in your own world. My mother had talked about sending her troops to find you before you could do anything in Wonderland," Jack explained.

"Now, I give you fair warning, Duchess. Either you or your head must be off, and that in about half no time! Take your choice!" the Queen yelled, not to far from the trio.

Not waiting for a response, White tugged on Alice's arm and dragged her into a run.

"I must go back or they'll wonder where I've gone. Good luck, Alice! Take care of her, White," Jack called, waving.

White seemed to take rights and lefts in no patter whatsoever and Alice could hardly keep up with him. "This would be much, much easier if you were from Wonderland," he said aloud.

Finally, they began to slow down to a walk, Alice huffing and puffing while White bared no sign of fatigue. _I would kill for some water_, Alice thought.

"Oh, of course," White said, reaching into the sack he was carrying over his shoulder. He sat down on the soft green grass and Alice followed suit.

He handed her a small bottle of clear liquid, something which Alice hoped to be water. She was so parched she decided it didn't matter if it was or was not, though, and downed half of the bottle in one large gulp.

"Can you read my thoughts?" she asked him, handing the half-empty bottle back to him.

"I think you already know the answer to that," he said, replacing it in the backpack.

"Well, how does it work? Do you need to be around me, or can you hear my thoughts all of the time? Why can't I hear your thoughts?"

He sighed deeply, then turned to face her again. "I can hear your thoughts all of the time, no matter what world either of us is in. It's quite maddening, actually."

"Is it only me? Whose mind you can read, I mean," she asked.

"Yes, it is only you," he said, looking deep into her eyes.

Alice found his intense gaze mesmerizing. She lost her train of thought looking into his grey eyes, but was brought back by his laughter.

"That's the frustrating bit," he chortled sarcastically.

"What?" Alice asked, not daring to look at his face again.

"Nothing. Have you seen the Mock Turtle yet?" he asked.

"I don't know what a Mock Turtle is," she responded, though she knew she need only think it.

"It's the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from. Come, we shall hide out with him for a while. Perhaps he'll tell you his history," White said, standing up. He offered Alice a hand up and pulled her upright.

After a few minutes of walking and of Alice testing White's ability to read minds, they found an exit to the maze and came face to face with a large man. He appeared to be a body guard of some sort, protecting whoever or whatever was on the other side of the velvet rope. His face was tough as stone and he refused to look down at the two.

"Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall," White said to him.

Alice looked incredulously at the boy who was accompanying her. He was quoting a children's rhyme to a man who could easily snap him in two.

"Humpty Dumpty had a great fall," the great man said back in a thick Brooklyn accent, finally acknowledging their presence, making poor Alice even more confused.

"What's up, Gryph?" White said with a smile, doing a sort of handshake-hug with the man.

"Not much, White. Who's the broad?" he asked, nodding in Alice's direction.

"I'm-"

White clapped his hand over Alice's mouth before she could introduce herself. He shook his head and looked up into the air where a stray bird or two flew above them.

"Mary," he told Gryph finally, raising his eyebrows.

"Had a little lamb?" he cried, looking at Alice with wide eyes. White merely nodded. "Go on in, then."

Passing through the velvet rope, they walked until they saw an enclosed pool area. A small boy was sitting on the ledge of the pool, his pant legs rolled up and his feet dangling in the water. He sighed deeper than Alice had ever heard anyone sigh before. It was a sigh so deep that Alice thought he must be in a great amount of pain.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked.

"There ain't nothing wrong with him," Gryph said with a short laugh. "It's all in his head."

Gryph walked them around to the opposite side of the pool and Alice got her first real look at the boy. His eyes were bog and blue and were filled with tears that refused to spill past his eyelashes. The bald child's shoulders were slumped as he kicked his legs gently through the water, as if he were treading it.

"This here young lady," said Gryph, "she wants to know your history, she do."

"I'll tell it her," he said in a deep, hollow tone. "Sit down, both of you, and don't speak a word till I've finished."

They sat there for some minutes, nobody saying anything. _How is he to finish if he hasn't started?_ Alice thought, looking at White and knowing that he knew what she was thinking. He simply took her hand in his, looked into her eyes and shook his head 'no.'

"Once," said the Mock Turtle at last, with a deep sigh, "I was a real Turtle." The boy then proceeded to sob into his sleeve.

Alice was quite alarmed at his sudden outburst. She looked over at her companion and he merely stroked her hand to comfort her.

_I'm not the one who needs comforting, obviously_, Alice thought so he could hear her.

White returned her with a half-smile and shook his head 'no' again.

It seemed to Alice that the boy would not be done crying for quite some time, so she devised a game in her head. White shook his head in agreement, and she began thinking.

_Did you like me when you first saw me?_

'No.'

_Was I that ugly?_ she thought with a smile.

'No.'

_Are you friends with Hatter and March?_

At this question, he lifted a flat hand and shook it from side to side. 'Kind of.'

_I'm sure you like them better than the Duchess and Queen_.

'Yes.'

_Did you enjoy it when we kissed?_

Before White responded, the boy let out a loud wail. With a great hiccup, he looked back up at them. "Well, I went to a school underwater. We had lessons on Reeling, Writhing, and Arithmetic, and we-"

"That's enough about lessons," Gryph said, interrupting them. "Tell her about the games."


	10. The Lobster Quadrille

**Sorry it took so long! I kinda detoured and wrote another story. Here's the next chapter. Hope you like!**

The boy began to cry again. Alice grew impatient. Almost as impatient as Gryph. Alice could tell that he was annoyed because he kept rolling his eyes, trying to lighten the mood for her and White.

All of the sudden, the boy began to hack and cough, as though his tears had choked the very last breath out of him. Alice stood quickly to help him, but White restrained her.

"Sounds like he's choking on a bone," Gryph laughed, obviously not concerned at all with the health and safety of the boy.

"Please," Alice pleaded, looking down at White who was holding her hand to keep her from going over to him. "Please, he needs help. Let me help him." Her heart was breaking. Nobody should feel this much sorrow.

White merely shook his head in response and Alice was getting desperate. "Mr. Mock Turtle, is there anything I can do? How can I help?"

All of the sudden, he stopped his coughing and merely sniffled. "You would want to help me, Alice?"

She looked back quickly at White, asking the mental question, _How did he know my name?_

"He knows many, many things. Mostly about you, which doesn't please me much," he responded gruffly, glaring at the Mock Turtle.

"That bugs you, doesn't it, White Rabbit?" the boy said with a hiccup. "It bugs you that I know more about her than you do. That I will always be closer to her than you. Has she ever rushed to your rescue? Has she ever-"

"Enough, boy," Gryph said silencing him. "Finish your story and leave the guy alone."

The Mock Turtle cringed a little before the mighty timbre of Gryph's voice, as if he was sent to keep the boy in line rather than to protect him. Hiccupping once more, the Mock Turtle began again. "You may not have lived much under the see, and you may not have been introduced to any of the Lobster Clan."

"No, I haven't," Alice responded truthfully. "Who are they?"

"They are men that have been kidnapped and taken to living underwater for the rest of their days," Gryph explained. "Nobody has any idea what they do down there, all alone. Nobody's ever been brave enough to go down and see."

"How very curious," Alice commented.

"Curious, indeed," White pouted, his arms crossed tightly over his chest.

"I suppose that means you've never seen a Lobster Quadrille," Mock Turtle said with a small smile.

"No, I haven't," Alice repeated. "What is it?"

"Well, every month at the new moon, the Lobster Clan makes their way to the shore. Women are there, the ones that the kidnapped men have left behind and some others," he explained, standing up and waiving Alice to do the same on the opposite side of the pool.

"First they bow to each other," he said, dipping into a low bow. For some reason, Alice couldn't help but do the same. It was as if she could not control her own body. It wasn't uncomfortable; she was in a sort of trance. "Then advance twice." He and Alice did. They were threateningly close to walking into the pool. "Change Lobsters."

Alice spun around and was face to face with White who also had no control over himself. White was aware of his condition, though. When she saw him, he looked panicked. She touched his forearm to console him.

"No, no, no. No touching," Mock Turtle reprimanded, and Alice's hand shot back to her side. "Good. Advance twice, then throw him as far out to sea as you can."

Not thinking, Alice gripped White's shirt and shoved him as hard as she could into the pool. White could do nothing about it because he was still under the Mock Turtle's power. He was going to drown.

Alice realized what she had done immediately after White had broke the surface of the water. She realized it. And was thinking. On her own. _The Mock Turtle must have some kind of power to keep us under his control! I have to help White!_

First, her right leg was able to move a little on its own. Feeling her own sort of power rush up the right side of her body, she was able to move her arm. The other arm and leg followed suit and she dove into the pool to rescue the boy that she had put in danger in the first place. In less than ten seconds, she had him out and gasping for breath but his body was still immobile.

"Let him go, Turtle," she said sternly, or as sternly as she could muster as she shivered from the chill of the air on her wet body.

The boy ignored her and with an evil smirk, he began to sing.

"_Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail. "There's a porpoise close behind us, and he's treading on my tail."_

"White? White? Snap out of it! White!" Alice yelled at him, trying to get him to move his appendages. Suddenly, he stood up.

"_See how eagerly the lobsters and the turtles all advance! They are waiting on the shingle – will you come and join the dance?"_

White walked over to Gryph and Alice hoped that the large man would be able to do something to help him. It wasn't until they both took an offensive stance that Alice realized they were both under the Mock Turtles' spell.

"Let them go!" she cried at him, but he only sang louder.

"_Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?"_

As he sang, Gryph began taking swings at White's face. Some of them made contact, and some of them missed White completely. But he did not move. He only stood there, waiting like a statue to be hit again.

Alice ran to them, staying far enough away to avoid getting hit, but close enough to see White's eyes start to fill with tears. He was afraid and he was hurt and there was nothing that she could think to do that could help him.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" she told him, starting to cry herself.

_"You can really have no notion how delightful it will be when they take us up and throw us, with the lobsters, out to sea!" But the snail replied "Too far, too far!" and gave a look askance - Said he thanked the whiting kindly, but he would not join the dance._

Alice knew that she shouldn't put herself between Gryph and White. It would be painful and she might not have the strength to endure it. She shouldn't join the dance. But she did.

Planting her feet firmly, she stood before Gryph, facing a fist that threatened to bloody her nose.

_Would not, could not, would not, could not, would not join the dance. Would not, could not, would not, could not, could not join – _

The Mock Turtle stopped as soon as Gryph's fist made contact with Alice. She held her left eye, sobbing quietly, but refusing to give up. She needed to save White.

"Stop!" the Mock Turtle called out. Without warning, Gryph picked up Alice as if he were going to carry her off to bed. Unfortunately, bed is not what the master puppeteer had in mind for Alice. She found herself sputtering again, treading water in the pool. Satisfied, the boy went back to his song while Gryph walked back over to White.

_"What matters it how far we go?" his scaly friend replied. "There is another shore, you know, upon the other side. The further off from England the nearer is to France - Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join the dance._

"White, look at me," Alice said, lifting herself out of the water and running as fast as she could to his side. "Look at me. Talk to me. Come with me. Take me home!" she pleaded.

_Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, will you join the dance? Will you, won't you, will you, won't you, won't you join the dance?_

Alice was running out of ideas. How could she have broken free of this curse, but White could not. Didn't they have a connection between their minds?

Gryph raised his fist again, ready to pummel White. Thinking quickly, Alice once again jumped between them but was now facing White. Her plan had to work.

She grabbed White's face and give him the most passionate kiss she could muster, all the while thinking, _Kiss me back, White. Kiss me and everything will be okay._

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Alice prepared to feel the blow hit the back of her head and cringed as she kissed White. But nothing came. Nothing except for the lips that she was kissing finally responding to her. White was awake!

Alice felt a tug on her hand and White moved them just before Gryph swung to hit. "Hurry, we need to get out of here!" he told her, pulling her towards the place where they had entered.

"No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise!" the Mock Turtle cried angrily as they leapt over the velvet rope.

White would not let them stop running until they were outside of the maze, which made Alice extremely dizzy. Her eye was throbbing and she was in want of a serious lie down. Panting and dragging her feet, Alice fell to the ground, her legs spread far apart as she rested lazily.

"Here," said White, handing her the bottle of water that she had taken a drink from earlier. When Alice looked at the amount of water left in the bottle, thinking that she ought to preserve some of it just in case they would need it later, she saw that it was filled to the brim.

"It's magic. It refills by itself," White answered her, reading her thoughts.

Just as she was about to gulp some down, she realized that her companion was holding his nose, wincing every time he touched its brim. _Come here_, she thought, beckoning him to herself. He followed her directions obediently.

She picked the white handkerchief that she saw hanging out of his pocket and squirted some of the water onto it.

"That's the Duchesses," he said, trying to stop her when she dabbed his blood-covered face.

"I don't plan on ever seeing her again. Do you?" she asked sarcastically. He remained quiet as she continued to clean him.

"Now here, hold this and pinch your nose. It will help stop the bleeding," she instructed.

"Thanks, mum," he replied, sending back some of her earlier sarcasm.

They sat in silence as Alice thought. She wondered whether White could feel her panic when she knew he was in trouble. She wondered if White could hear her thoughts as she desperately tried to rescue him from the Mock Turtle's curse. _I hope he did_, Alice thought. _Then he'd know that the little bugger was wrong when he said that I didn't care about White_.

"I could still hear you," White told her in an odd voice because he was pinching his nose. "I can always hear you. It's just very-" he paused to think for a moment, "-inconvenient that you can't hear me."

"Does it ever get annoying, my thoughts?" she asked.

Removing the handkerchief from his nose, he said, "Not usually. Normally I can just ignore what you're thinking if I want to. But when you feel very strongly about what you're thinking, then I can't get it out of my head."

"I'm sorry," Alice said bashfully. She wouldn't want to wish her thoughts on anyone, especially not on someone who didn't even live in her own world.

"Don't apologize. It's my privilege that I get to hear what you're thinking. Especially since you're….Well, since you're you," he responded softly.

Alice blushed. Nobody had ever said anything like that to her before. Nobody had ever cared enough about her to think that she was special. And here was this boy that she met only today and she was already…What? Already falling for him? She didn't know. She didn't know him. It was utterly unfair that he had known her for her entire life through reading her thoughts, but she only now got to meet him.

"I know," he said, his eyes turned to the ground.


	11. She Disappeared

I know it's been forever. Sorry! I hope that at least SOME people still read this...

While they continued walking, Alice found that the two could carry out a conversation without actually saying anything, as long as her she ended her thoughts in yes or no questions. She wasn't one for that sort of thing, though. She much preferred to speak aloud so she could figure White out as well as she could manage.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"How old do you think I am?"

A number popped into her head and before she could say it aloud, he shook his head no. The process repeated, but his answer remained the same. "Alright Mr. Mind-reader, give me a hint."

"I'm probably around ten times older than you as far as numbers go. As far as physical maturity goes, I'm probably only a year or so ahead of you. It's such a shame that people grow old and die so quickly in your world," he said.

Alice needed time to think. He was around 170 years old! Quite an age difference. But what was that saying? Age is but a number? What am I saying? People only use that excuse when they are talking about a relationship. And I don't want that, right?

She looked back over at White who was busying himself with opening his sack as they walked. Thoughts of their first encounter, then their first kiss flooded to her mind. She thought about the pain that she felt when White was in trouble and how she was so eager to step in and help him. And then that second kiss, the one that made him come alive again, was beautiful. It was like breathing life into a statue that she had been admiring for so long. Her heart fluttered quickly in her chest at her own thoughts and she felt a strange tingling sensation crawl its way down her body.

Or maybe I do want to be with him.

White stopped looking in his sack and faced Alice abruptly. She saw his movement out of the corner of her eyes and remembered that he could hear her thoughts, something that she obviously continued to forget while she thought of him.

I'm sorry you had to hear that, she thought. I don't mean to analyze you so bluntly. I just forget that you can hear me, that's all.

"You shouldn't be apologizing," he said with a smile. "You shouldn't worry about controlling your thoughts around me. I like to hear them."

"If you're that much older than me, did you live for 150 years without hearing my thoughts? I bet you thought you were mad if one day out of the blue you heard my little baby thoughts," Alice asked.

"No, I heard your thoughts every now and again for my entire life. I'm not sure how that works. Maybe before you were even born, you were able to think about things, just waiting to get down to earth. Like I said, I don't know," he explained.

"Your guess is as good as mine," she added.

They slipped into an uncomfortable silence as Alice tried not to think of anything. It didn't work for her as well as she thought it might. Soon enough, her thoughts fluttered back to the boy – man, she had to remind herself, as he was roughly 150 years older than her – that she was walking with. She tried to grasp any other thing in her mind. Anything else, so that White didn't have to listen to her prattle on in her brain about their relationship, or lack thereof. Finally, she settled on reciting the alphabet in English, then French.

"You know when I consciously listened to your thoughts the most?" White said, finally making an effort to engage in conversation.

"No, when?" she asked, happily distracted from her silent recitations.

"When you were in primary school. You were so excited to learn. You still are, really, but you were much more open about it," he told her.

At this, she smiled shyly and blushed, but kept pace with him. They had found their own step and were moving in sync with each other, something that neither of them had failed to notice.

How strange, Alice thought.

"Not as strange as you would think," White said, snorting wryly. "It happens quite a bit. At least I think it does, as I never really know what you're doing in your world. Sometimes I find my body doing things without my knowledge. My pulse suddenly quickens or I begin to run or…well one time when you were younger and had the chicken pox, I couldn't stop scratching myself. It was humiliating."

When White was done, he realized that Alice wasn't saying anything. He'd meant the last bit as a joke, but it seemed as if Alice had not taken it that way. Suddenly, the red that had so recently flushed her cheeks was gone. She was silent and somber.

"Oh, no, no, Alice, I didn't mean-"

Suddenly, there was a pop and Alice was pinned to the ground. Her favorite person in Wonderland had just joined the pair on their journey. "Hey, sweetheart. Miss me?"

White had some sort of weapon in his hands, pointed at the boy's back. "Get off of her. Now!" he commanded.

"No, White, it's okay. He's harmless," Alice said, moving her head around her captor's shoulder to assure her companion. "Hello, Cheshire." She looked back into his eyes as he bent over to suck on her neck.

"Mmmmm, hey baby," he moaned into her, now cupping her breasts through her dress.

Alice tried not to think it. Truly, she did. Unfortunately, if one has to try not to think of something, one is inevitably thinking it. Oh, that feels good, Alice thought, and her mind was filled with thoughts and fantasies. But then she remembered her companion's special abilities and was consumed with worries about White.

Meanwhile, White was trying to decide what he should do. Should he intervene? Alice said this boy was harmless but based on the look he portrayed through his clothing...

Cheshire cared about nothing but pleasuring the creature underneath him. He would never admit it, but Alice was perhaps the sexiest woman he had ever met in Wonderland, and he had met his fair share of sexy women. It was because she was different, not throwing herself at him or at anyone else, but not exactly pushing him away either. He loved to make her squirm.

Cheshire sat up slowly and game Alice one final passionate kiss on the lips before he disappeared off of her.

She cleared her throat and blinked a few times to recover her bearings before lifting herself off of the ground. She brushed off her dress a little which effected her cleanliness very little. There was no sugar-coating it: she was a mess.

"Alice, I really must insist that you do not see that boy again," White said softly.

"Why's that, buddy boy?" a voice said from above them. It seemed as if Cheshire had popped himself into a nearby tree when he had released Alice.

White spun around quickly, looking for the body that the voice belonged to. Alice looked to the trees immediately, having been tricked by Cheshire in this manner before. Reading her thoughts, White also found him.

"Is it because I'm different?" he said, lazily picking at his black fingernails. He popped down to the ground to size up the other teenager. "Or is it because I'm a 'bad influence'?"

"Thank you for mentioning those-"

"Or maybe - just throwing this out there - it's because you don't want me to kiss her for some reason," Cheshire taunted, circling White as if he were his prey.

"W-why, of all the silly things," White scoffed with great difficulty.

"Hmm, ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. You want her all to yourself, don't you, bud?" he teased, now moving to put his arm around Alice's shoulder.

"I...have no claim on her," he replied.

Alice's heart nearly broke in two. Her mind filled with sorrow and regret. She chastised herself silently for having ever thought that White was interested in her and for allowing herself to fall for a boy that she had met only...well, hours ago, really.

White's eyes snapped over to catch Alice's, but she was looking at the ground, fighting back tears.

Cheshire smirked. "No, you don't. Well, then, I guess you won't mind if I do this, then." He curled Alice into him with the arm he had around her shoulder. He touched his lips to hers very gentle, very cautious, very uncharacteristic. He placed his hands on her cheeks, cupping them in his palms.

She had never been kissed like that before. Cheshire made her feel instantly better, the way he was kissing her. It was almost as if he were kissing her like he was in love with her. In the back of her mind, Alice knew that he was not, but it was a nice feeling, regardless. She felt infinite.

And White felt as if a dagger had been plunged into his heart as he stood by, watching Alice - the girl he had loved perhaps since her infancy - kiss another man like that. It may have been less painful had she not been enjoying it. Unfortunately, he knew exactly what she thought about it.

Cheshire parted from Alice, but kept his hands cupped around her cheeks. Their eyes met and for one minute, the doubt she had about his love dissipated. He kissed her forehead softly before releasing her completely, turning back to White.

Cheshire grinned when he saw White's face contorted in pain. Fortunately, he somewhat pulled himself together before Alice could see him. She had a sheepish look on her face, her cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"That didn't bother you?" Cheshire asked, gloating because he already knew the answer to his question.

"Cheshire-" Alice said warningly.

"Come on, baby, let him answer like a man. Let him tell you the truth," he said, stroking her cheek again.

"Do you do this just to taunt me?" White asked softly, his face turned into the distance behind him. Alice had never seen him this way before, so raw in his own emotions. This was not the happy-go-lucky smart ass she followed into Wonderland.

"White?" Alice asked, looking at him with concern. He did not turn back to her. It's you. It's always been you, you know that. I just don't know if you feel the same way, she thought to him. Perhaps it was the wrong thing to think at the moment, though she thought he already knew how she felt.

"You don't love her," White said finally to Cheshire. "You shouldn't kiss her like that - touch her like that - if you don't love her."

"And who's to say that I don't love her?" he snapped defensively, disregarding his cool persona for a new fiery one.

"Color me confused," Alice said, looking between the boys.

"Don't worry about it, sweetheart," Cheshire said, still heated. "This is between us guys."

"This nonsense has got to stop," White said finally. Alice realized that he had once again become the confident guy she had known him to be. No more sappiness for him. He was all business.

"You think you're so special because you can hear what she's thinking, don't ya?" Cheshire spat. "Well, you're not. You can get in her mind, big deal. Can you make her happy?"

"Better than you can," White replied. "I know what she wants."

"And I don't? You seriously think that you can provide everything she needs while you are-"

Cheshire didn't get to finish his thought, which made Alice happy. She wasn't pleased that they were fighting over her, especially since she was supposed to be leaving Wonderland anyways. What she was not happy about was the way in which Cheshire was stopped.

The guard must have been waiting silently in the surrounding area, ready to capture the three teens. The argument provided the perfect cover, as neither of the more threatening boys were aware of their surroundings, only each other. Once both were sufficiently incapacitated, their boss entered the forrest. There, in front of Cheshire, White, and Alice, stood none other than the Queen of Hearts, closely followed by her husband and their son.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" she said mockingly.

"Seems to be a group of bandits, milady," the guard who was in charge of Cheshire answered.

She looked at the guard who spoke and said, "I know who they are, you imbecile! Off with his head!"

The Royal Decapitator must have been waiting close by the Queen's side, as he quickly set forth to pull the guard away from the group. In the second that Cheshire was left unguarded, he popped quickly to Alice's side and threw her over his shoulder.

Before any of the party, including the Queen, including White, including even Alice herself, could blink, the two disappeared with a loud crack.


	12. Master

**Hey everyone. I'd like to apologize if my last post was super confusing. I just switched from a PC to a Mac and all of the formatting got messed up. I'm working on fixing it. I'm also sorry that this has taken me so long to write. Severe writers block. In the meantime, enjoy! And respond, if you don't mind ;)**

When Alice finally found the nerve, she opened her eyes to see where she was. She was being tossed and turned like she was in a tumble dryer. Colors were spinning above her. Alice was convinced she was in some sort of vortex. The only things holding her together were the arms that encased her.

Seconds later, she was deposited sharply on her backside, sending teapots, sugar, cream, teacups, and saucers flying everywhere. She groaned as she tried to stand on the table, rubbing her sore bum.

"I can't believe I did that," Cheshire said, only a few feet away from where Alice stood.

"Neither can I; you just ruined our afternoon tea," a familiar voice said behind Alice. She spun around carefully, trying not to step on the broken shards of what used to be a purple teapot, and saw none other than Hatter, who was comfortably seated in March Hare's lap. Alice noted that he had a large tent in his pants and wondered what the pair had truly interrupted.

"Sorry," she said quickly, turning her attention back to Cheshire, who was still on the table, gasping for air. "Cheshire, are you alright?"

He took a moment to move his hands up and down his body, pausing ever so briefly before checking his privates. "I-I should be," he said, his breathing not quite back to normal.

"Good," she murmured, "now go back and get White. How could you leave him all alone with them?" she said with much more force, smacking his arm.

"I-" he stammered in shock, "I can't!"

"No, you won't!" Alice clarified for him.

It seemed like his words had made him even more exhausted. His eyes looked droopy, as if he were about to nod off any moment. He looked nothing short of awful. "No, Alice, I honestly can't. Aside from the fact that I can't even move, I can't transport other people," he said, wheezing.

"What do you mean? You transported me just fine," she said accusingly. As soon as she said it, though, she realized how foolish she sounded. He was anything but fine.

She bent over him and pulled a stray lock of his dark hair out of his face, which was consequently soaking with sweat. He caught her hand in his, but Alice knew that she could have easily tugged free if she wanted to; he was so frail. "I shouldn't have been able to do that. I don't know why I did it; something inside of me was just telling me I-I had to try," he explained, his voice coming out as nothing more than a whisper.

"Cheshire," Alice said warningly. Well, she thought it was warningly, anyways. She couldn't quite decide whether or not Cheshire was trying to make her like him. More than that, she couldn't quite decide if it was working.

She moved more of his hair out of the line of his vision, pushing his long bangs back. Instead of moving her hands right away, as she had intended to do, she didn't. She couldn't. Something was keeping her close to him. It was nothing like the spell that Mock Turtle put on her, but something deeper. It was something inside of her. A swelling in her heart. Cheshire said nothing, but rested his cheek on her palm.

"He loves you," a voice added, snapping Alice out of her trance. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Doormouse was awake.

"Pardon me?" Alice asked.

"He loves you. That's why he can transport you with him. Though, it looks like you two may need a little practice," he answered.

Alice looked back down at the boy who had just saved her life. "Is it true?" she asked him.

"You won't like the answer I give you, no matter what I say," he responded, avoiding the question.

"Very good!" squealed Hatter. "You sound just like a politician!"

Alice sat up, avoiding eye contact with Cheshire for the time being, even though she was sitting next to him. Even though she owed him so much, maybe even her life. She felt utterly torn.

"Please, don't," Cheshire said, sitting up next to her. He took her hand in his but still, she could not look at him.

"Please," he whispered, sounding as close to breaking as Alice herself was feeling. Still, she refused to turn her eyes to meet his. There were so many things she had to think about. So many things she had to work out for herself in her mind.

There was White to think about. She knew that he said he had no claim on her, but the way that he looked at her - the way he acted when they were together - made it hard for her to believe what he'd said. She knew that they shared something so unique, so intimate, from the moment she was born. Before she was born, even. They were connected, whether he loved her or not. And that was not something she could easily overlook.

But Cheshire was not to be counted out either. He had risked his life to save her and every time he touched her she felt electricity run through her skin. Yes, she sometimes liked it when he was rough with her, but he could be so gentle and kind as well. Like the last kiss they shared.

"Alice, don't shut me out," Cheshire whispered, nudging her neck with his nose. She could feel the words as he breathed them out onto her neck, sending a shiver down her spine.

Letting out a breath, she closed her eyes to turn toward the boy next to her. She opened them slowly, letting herself really look at him for the first time.

He wasn't quite as gothic as she had believed him to be. Yes, he wore black, but his clothing was tattered - something she hadn't noticed before. The collar he wore around his neck was trapped in between red flesh, full of old scars and fresh scratch wounds, as if he had been trying to tear it off, quite unsuccessfully.

She touched the mutilated flesh softly, looking back at him. She was swimming in his eyes, trying to form the question she longed to ask, but unable to form it in her mouth. She was drowning in the storm grey eyes that she had never noticed before. Not in this way.

He winced slightly as she traced the marks around the circumference of his neck. Hidden in the back, shaded by Cheshire's long hair, was a buckle. As soon as she felt it, she began swimming back into consciousness, wading out of the spell of his eyes.

"Why don't you take it off?" she asked him quietly.

"I'd think it was ruddy well obvious," Hatter interrupted. Alice's eyes cut quickly to look at him, still seated on March Hare's lap, his arms around his companion's neck. She raised one eyebrow at him, challenging him to offer the information she was seeking. "He can't."

She looked back down at Cheshire. "Why not?" she asked him.

"I don't know," he answered, standing up on the table. "Nobody can, except my master."

As he turned his back to Alice while maneuvering off the table, she noticed that the chains attached to the front of his pants were not attached at the back as she had expected them to be. They were floating mid-air, so close to his back that one could assume that they were, in fact, a part of his ensemble. But now Alice knew. These were chains that his master held him with.

"And who is your master?" Alice asked him quietly.

His eyes flitted to meet hers only briefly, then turned back to the ground. He was ashamed.

She would not have him shutting her out. After all, he was persistent when it was her who felt confused and undecided. She lifted herself from the table and walked carefully to its edge. Jumping off, she landed less than a foot away from the boy.

"This is better than primetime television," she heard March Hare whisper, but she ignored him.

"Chess," she said quietly, moving his bangs away from his eyes again. She saw his eyelids close as he breathed out. "Cheshire." Her palms were cupping his cheeks, the way that his had cupped hers when they had last kissed. She bent her knees so she was underneath his downturned face and slowly - seemingly as slowly as the world itself rotates - lifted her face up to kiss him. And through that touch of their lips, Alice felt their worlds collide harder and faster than the collision between her and White. It rocked her sense of direction, her sense of time, and her sense of space. Everything was topsy-turvy and she craved more and more of it.

Suddenly, Cheshire pushed her back. "Alice, let go!" he yelled at her, but she was still drunk with feeling that she couldn't understand what he was saying to her. "You have to let go of me now!" Her hands were still on his face, but his backside was moving farther and father away from her as if someone was yanking him back.

Even though the pair was no longer kissing, Alice's world was still turning, spinning, over and over. But Cheshire was still there, a panicked look on his face. She meant to say something to him, but she couldn't find her voice. It was being sucked right out of her as the vortex encased her.

Cheshire pulled her tight to his chest, just as he had done before, out of protection. Alice clamped her eyes shut as quickly as she could, blocking the blinding colors from her view.

Within a matter of seconds, she was deposited on her bottom again, with the same force as before. He was, too. But within a matter of seconds, he was crouched in front of Alice defensively.

She heard a chuckle coming from a figure blocked from her view by Cheshire.

"Good kitty," it finally said.

Alice didn't need to see who the voice belonged to. She recognized it. And now, she knew that Cheshire belonged to it.

It was the Queen.


	13. The Deal

"Isn't it nice that I can just snap my fingers and you come popping back to me," the Queen said with an evil chuckle. "And just my luck! You were still touching her!"

Alice was trying to help Cheshire, even though he had his back to her. He looked as if he were about to pass out from the strain of transporting both he and Alice again, but he managed a face tough enough to ward the guards away. As she pet his back, half to comfort him and half to let her hands have something to do, she noticed White out of the corner of her eye. His limp body was being held up between two guards, bruised and bloodied from what looked like a harsh beating.

Seeing him in such a morbid state made her gasp out loud, her hands leaving Cheshire and covering her mouth.

The Queen turned slowly in the direction of White, but then back toward Alice. "Yes, pity isn't it? He had such a pretty face." As if on cue, one of the guards grabbed a handful of White's bleached hair and lifted it so Alice could see just how serious his injuries were.

White's eyes were bruising and swollen shut, not that they'd be open anyways, as he appeared to be knocked unconscious. There was a trail of nearly-dried blood running under his nose and it was so off-kilter, Alice was sure it was broken. But worst of all were the crimson blotches that stained his cheeks. There were deep cuts underneath and blood was still freely flowing from the open wounds. There was no way they were acquired in a hand-to-hand brawl; he was cut with a knife.

Alice couldn't help herself; she began sobbing. Immediately after the first tear ran down her cheek, she lunged past Cheshire and at the guards holding White up. She was immediately thrown back to the ground. In her mind, she was screaming for him. _WHITE? WHITE? I'm so sorry! This is all my fault! WHITE? Please, look at me! Answer me!_

"Ah, ah, ah," the Queen said, taunting Alice by waving her finger back and forth. "He's not yours to keep."

"He's not yours, either!" Alice screamed back at her. Cheshire was trying to help her up, but was snatched by a few of the guards while his back was turned.

She screamed again. Her only friends in Wonderland were captured by the evilest of women and there was literally nothing that she could do about it. She couldn't even think straight. Weeping uncontrollably, she sat on the ground while the Queen merely laughed at her. Without much coaxing, the rest of her entourage were suffering from fits of laughter. All but one.

Alice lifted her head to look at the Queen, then at her two friends. Friends, but maybe more than friends, both of them. Her overwhelming sadness soon turned slowly to rage. Instead of clear vision, everything was outlined in red.

She wiped the tears from her face with her forearm and stood up. She puffed her chest out, trying to look as tall and intimidating as she could. In her most commanding voice, she said, "You will let my friends go, and you will let them go now."

This amused the Queen more than the crying had. While her laughter became more shrill, the rest of the party quieted down. There was something in the way Alice had ordered them about that made them, just for a moment, consider doing what she asked.

The Queen's laughter grew softer and softer as she realized that barely anyone was laughing with her. Her evil grin smoothed into a tight line as she took in the sight of Alice.

"I said, let them go," Alice repeated once she knew she had the Queen's attention.

"And if I don't?" she replied, looking straight into Alice's eyes.

Alice hadn't thought of that. How would she make them let go of White and Cheshire? She had no real leverage with them, nothing to bargain with. Nothing, that is, except herself.

"If you let them go, I'll give you something that you really want," she finally responded.

The Queen scoffed quickly. "And what could you have that I want? I'm a Queen! I have everything I need, and what I don't have, I have servants to fetch for me."

"You don't have me," Alice said quietly. "Let them go, and I'll give myself over to you freely."

"NO! ALICE! DON'T! IT'S NOT WORTH IT!" Cheshire began yelling at her. He was wrestling furiously in the arms of his captors, trying to break free to protect her.

She ignored him, keeping her eyes on the Queen who seemed to be seriously considering the deal. "And you have to release Cheshire from whatever odd control you have over him!" Alice added quickly.

The Queen raised an eyebrow, but stopped when her husband whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said seemed to make her mind up. "I shall accept your terms," she told Alice.

"NO! ALICE, NO!"

"Let the prisoners go," the Queen ordered. The arms holding back Cheshire and holding up White retreated to the sides of their owners, leaving both essentially free.

"Chess, you have to carry him. Get him out of here and get him help," Alice said, quickly running to White's side, Cheshire not far behind her.

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" he boomed at her.

She ignored his question. "Promise me you'll keep him safe," she said, looking back to meet his eye for the first time since she made the deal. His eyes were flaming, almost physical representation of the rage he was feeling. But Alice could see that the glassy layer of a tear forming. "Promise me," she said, touching the back of his hand quickly.

He looked away from her, not speaking.

"Seize the prisoner," the Queen ordered. Alice immediately felt hands grab her upper arms, lifting her from White's side. Her feet were dangling off the ground as the strong guards marched her toward their mistress.

"NO! ALICE!" Cheshire was shouting from behind her.

She was not physically able to turn her head to see him, but she yelled back, "PROMISE ME!"

Waiting for the reply, she barely heard him choke out, "I promise."

Alice was marched further and further away from the clearing she had been captured in. It seemed like the group waked miles before she spotted their destination. As the Heart Castle came into sight, she heard an all-too familiar cry of heart-wrenching pain coming from the direction she had just traveled.

**I know it's short, but I still hope you liked it! The end is near (maybe)! Please review!**


	14. Dispair

**Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully I'll be able to update sooner than normal! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE R&R. I need some input on how the story's going.**

The castle was beautiful in a terrifying kind of way. It was eerily perfect, like someone had just cleaned out a dead body and nobody wanted to set foot in the cursed place again. The Queen had no problem waltzing in, though, with Alice in tow.

"Home sweet home," she said, letting out a sigh. "For me, anyways. I'm not sure that you'll care too much for your quarters, dear. Guard! Show our guest to her room, please."

The Queen looked very pleased with herself, but wasn't entirely assured without the opinions of her peers. She looked to both of her sides to gage the reactions of her fellow court members.

On her left stood the King who looked bored more than anything. His gaze was settled on a nearby window outside of which a songbird was chirping quietly. She shook her head, rolled her eyes, and looked to her right. There stood her son, Jack, who had helped the prisoner escape. His face was as expressionless as the carpet she was standing on.

As the guards were dragging Alice between them, the Queen yelled, "Stop!" When they turned back to face her, she looked at the Prince. "Jack, dear, why don't you accompany our guest? Make sure she feels right at home."

"Yes, Mother," he said in a monotone. He followed the guards, walking directly behind Alice. When one guard dropped her arm, Jack hurried to catch her before she fell to the floor. Unfortunately, the Queen saw this.

"JACK," she roared, "no funny business. Guard, you have my permission to detain the Prince if he disobeys me." But in her mind, she was forming a plan so incredibly devious that nobody would ever challenge her in the kingdom again. They would be too scared.

After marching her down flights of stairs, the guards dumped Alice on a dark, dank, musty, wet dungeon floor. She was quite disheveled, having been literally dragged across the ground and castle. Her head was pounding and her eyes were full of tears.

The creature Jack saw before his eyes made him want to rip his heart out. When she looked up at him, looking so broken and damaged, he longed to reach out for her. But because of his mother's edict, he could do nothing but make her "at home" in the dungeon.

He bent to her level and reached above her. For a moment Alice believed he was going to help her. He had been so kind to her at the croquet game; he was nothing like his evil mother. Then he clamped iron shackles around her wrist. Any hope she had left in her was gone. Nobody would help her.

Jack saw how hurt she looked. He couldn't stand seeing her like this. In one swift motion, he lifted himself from his crouch and walked quickly toward the exit. Before he could make it, one of the guards grabbed his bicep and yanked him back.

"Don't you have anything to say to the little miss?" he said, an evil smile playing across his fat, cracked lips.

Jack looked back at Alice slowly, then down at the floor beneath her feet. "Enjoy your stay," he said quietly, then turned and sped out of the dungeon.

"I wouldn't get too comfortable if I was you," the other guard said, smiling right back at his companion, then glancing toward Alice. "The Queen doesn't take long to decide what she's going to do with her prisoners." With his hand, he pretended to slit his own throat.

The two left Alice to her own devices, cackling as they locked the door behind them. Shivering, Alice never felt so utterly alone.

That is, until she remembered that White could hear her every thought.

_White, if you can hear me, I'm so sorry for what they did to you because of me. This is all my fault. Please don't come looking for me, no matter what I'm thinking or what you feel. I want you to stay safe, that's the important thing. I care about you so much and now I can't imagine a world - mine or yours - without you in it. So please keep on living. Find a way to get out of my head. Find peace. Chess too. Stay safe. Stay safe. Stay safe._

Alice collapsed on the dungeon floor.

Meanwhile, Cheshire had moved White to another part of the woods. He was trying to make his way back to the Hatter and Hare because, at the moment, those were the only two people he could trust. They were so crazy they'd have to take them in.

It was a little difficult carrying White around. He couldn't jump from place to place like he was used to because of this extra passenger. Cheshire thought about transporting himself to the Hare's just to have them help, but he didn't dare leave White on his own. He'd made a promise to Alice, one that he'd keep, no matter what it cost him. It was his fault she was in the hands of the Queen in the first place.

_First, get him to safety, then find Alice_, he thought to himself.

He couldn't even begin to think about what she was going through. The Queen hadn't spared him from beatings before, and about far less important things. The torture that Alice must have been enduring at that very moment...

_No, get White to safety._

All of the sudden, White began breathing heavily and twitching in Cheshire's arms. He was shaking so violently that Chess had to set him down on the ground so he wouldn't accidentally drop him while walking. With a loud gasp, White opened his eyes wide. The stretching of his skin made his wounds reopen and thick blood began seeping down his face.

"Alice!" he called out.

"White! White, settle down. Alice isn't here. She isn't here, White!" Cheshire tried to explain, but White was insistent.

"Alice! Alice!"

Cheshire had to hold the boy down so he wouldn't hurt himself even more. But the more Chess tried, the more White struggled. "Alice! Alice!"

He wasn't sure what he should do. White seemed to be having a panic attack. Chess was tempted to slap him, but with all of his injuries it might cause more harm than good. He decided that the best thing to do was wait it out.

"Alice! Alice! Alice!"

Cheshire sat on the ground, not far away, and waited. At first, there was no progress. But then, minute by minute, White called her name less. Nearly half an hour later, his breathing began to return to normal. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked around.

"Cheshire," he said quietly, his voice scratchy from overuse and abuse.

"What is it, my friend?" Chess asked, crawling to White's side. There was no use harboring any ill-will against the boy. Alice trusted him. They could be friends, he just had to get over his extreme jealousy of White's special connection to the girl he loved.

"Alice," he said quietly. "She spoke to me."

"What did she say?" Cheshire asked excitedly. "Is she alright?"

White knew there was no use sugar-coating his thoughts. Cheshire needs to know the truth. "I think - I think she's dead."

"NO!" Cheshire sobbed. The boy with the spiked collar, with the black clothes, with the chains, had tears running down his face, racing each other down his cheeks. He didn't bother wiping them away. "No, it can't be!"

"I don't know what else to think," White said, defeated. "She said something, something that sounded like a final goodbye. I haven't heard any thoughts from her at all since then. Not a single thought. Nothing. Just quiet. My mind hasn't felt this empty my entire life."

"What exactly did she say?" asked Cheshire, grabbing onto White's stained shirt in desperation. When he groaned, Chess quickly let go, remembering the pain he must be in.

"She said that we shouldn't go looking for her, no matter what. She wants us both to keep living and to stay safe. She wants me to find a way to break my bond with her, but what she doesn't realize is-"

"There's no living without her now," Cheshire finished for him.

"Exactly," White said, laying still on the ground. "What I wouldn't give to have her be able to hear my thoughts, too."

"Wouldn't matter much now if what you think is true," Chess sniffled. Tears were still falling freely from his eyes.

"But to have one more conversation with her, to be able to tell her all of the things I never had the opportunity to. To tell her..." White trailed off.

"To tell her you loved her," Cheshire said softly, finishing his companion's statement. "You did love her, didn't you?"

White looked into the burning eyes of the weeping boy beside him. "I loved her more than anything. I cared about her far more than I cared about myself. Every time I was with her, my pulse would race, my heart would jump, my entire being felt a jolt of energy. I knew I loved her before I even met her. But when our lips touched that first time - I can't even describe the feeling. It was like when a drowning person is saved from the water. I needed the touch of her skin on mine like I needed air. I craved it constantly and no matter how much she gave me, I wanted more."

Cheshire listened attentively to White's description. If he was jealous of the boy before, he was even more jealous now. He had wanted to be the only one to touch those soft, full lips.

He'd always kept his distance from other people. Nobody had ever gotten close to him like she had.

Cheshire pulled at his collar like he had so many times. Unlike the other times, the worn buckle released the leather from its hold, the collar coming undone in his hands. He immediately yanked at the chains attached to his belt. They too fell to the ground. It was a sign of Alice's last great sacrifice; he was free.

Cheshire felt his heart rip in two, slowly, painfully.

"You loved her too," White stated. He knew. There was no question about it.

Cheshire lifted his eyes from the ground. "I didn't know that life had a purpose before I met her," he said simply.

White looked up at him with pity. Cheshire was much, much older than he. Had he truly waited all of his life for a purpose, only to have it taken away from him so quickly? "What is your purpose now?"

Cheshire wiped the remaining tears from his face. Standing up, he said, "I thought it was obvious. Revenge."

By the time Alice regained consciousness, Cheshire had already deposited White at the Hare's. Despite their earlier antics, the Hatter and the Hare didn't dislike the girl. In fact, they were outraged at what the Queen had done to her. When they found that Cheshire was seeking revenge against the Queen, they insisted that they go with him, leaving White in the not-so-capable hands of Doormouse.

Doormouse was asleep when White sat bolt upright, having heard Alice's first thought upon her waking. _Where am I?_

There was no way for him to tell Cheshire the news. All he could do was recover and pray that he would be able to turn his mission of revenge into a mission of rescue.


	15. In the Arena

**Hi again! You all might hate me for this chapter. In fact, I kind of hate myself for this chapter. **

**I have to add a disclaimer: If you don't like violence, don't read this chapter. I had an extremely hard time writing it because I've grown so attached to my little buggers. **

**Happy holidays! Keep reviewing! XOXO**

The Queen had thrown Alice into a pit of perpetual midnight with no moon to guide her way; there was not a sliver of light in her small prison. This left Alice with very little hope for her future. Even if she was only going to be in this place for a short amount of time, the next part of her life was sure to be as dark as this with the Queen in charge of it.

Still, she had no idea of the horrors that awaited her.

The Queen had made all of the preparations. The arena was ready, her citizens were ready, everything was going to go exactly as she planned it. That little bitch would not overthrow her. Alice would be sorry that she was ever born.

The Queen paced back and forth in her throne room, waiting for the guards to return with her prisoner. Her husband sat in his throne, a throne that promised false power, as he tried to solve a crossword puzzle. Her son was looking out of the window at the arena; she had not allowed him to know of her plans.

"Guard!" she said suddenly, stopping in the middle of the floor. Each of the three men assigned to protect her stood at attention, ready to do her bidding. "I think it's time you escorted my son to his place for today's festivities." All three men performed a small, sharp bow. Two guards grabbed Jack by his elbows, walking out of the throne room.

The Queen took the place of her son at the window and watched as the guards tied him to his chair in the very front of the arena. So far, everything was going according to plan.

Just then, a face popped into view in front of her. The man was wearing a large top hat, but it wasn't falling off even though he was upside down. Before she could alert the guard, she was grabbed from behind.

"Miss me?" a familiar voice whispered in her ear.

She turned toward the voice to see Cheshire holding a dagger to her throat. Cheshire could swear he saw fear flash in her eyes before he moved her from the window. Hatter broke the glass, letting himself and the Hare into the castle.

Cheshire learned too late that he captured the wrong person first. The guard blew a whistle he kept under his garments. Seconds later, Cheshire, Hatter, and Hare were surrounded by the full guard of the Queen's court. Unfortunately, Cheshire loosened his grip on the Queen just long enough that she was able to free herself from his grasp.

"How fortunate we are, gentlemen," the Queen said in her high-pitched voice. "Our guests have arrived just in time for today's festivities." The guards all chuckled. Cheshire knew this meant trouble, more trouble than he anticipated.

Just then, Alice was dragged into the room by a guard and presented to the Queen. Alice couldn't bring herself to look up; she was in too much pain. Before the Queen let the intruders see her, she nodded as a gesture to show the guards that they should grab hold of them.

Cheshire had heard the door open but couldn't see anything past the guards in front of him. When he felt the vice-like grip of someone, locking both his harms behind his back, he knew something was about to happen.

"Don't be rude. Say hello to your friends, dear," the Queen said.

The guards slowly stepped aside to reveal Alice's dirt-clad, weak form on the floor of the chamber.

"Alice!" Cheshire cried out. He was elated that she was still alive. Nothing else mattered to him at that moment. She was alive. She was alive. She was alive.

The Queen grabbed her face and turned it toward her friends. Alice's eyes fluttered and made contact with those of the intruders. "Chess," she said weakly.

"Oh, Alice!" Chess said, trying to move forward to touch her as if he needed to make sure she wasn't merely an illusion. The guard holding him yanked him back into place, though, reminding him that they were not out of the woods yet.

"Have three more chairs set up next to my son. I'm sure our new guests would enjoy a front row seat for today's festivities," the Queen said to one of her servants. The guards holding Cheshire, Hatter, and Hare took this as an order to bring them to the arena and began exiting the room. Cheshire was fighting them the entire way out; he'd only just gotten Alice back. He didn't want to lose her again.

"Let's you and me have a little chat, shall we?" the Queen said to Alice as soon as the pair were left relatively alone. Alice was slumped at the foot of the Queen and received a sharp kick in the face. "You will look at me when I'm talking to you!"

Alice looked up, rubbing her face softly to massage the smarting flesh. The Queen saw surrender in her eyes. She saw hunger, sadness, dejection, and fear. This was not enough to save her from the punishment that awaited her in the arena, though. She was to see this through, and if she survived, she would be so broken that she wouldn't have the capacity to fight for the throne.

It was really a stroke of luck that the girl's allies chose this morning to break into the Queen's castle. They would have to watch the girl be tortured and tormented, having no way to do anything about it. It would be quite fun for the Queen to watch, she decided.

"You have no idea what I have planned for you," she told Alice, as if it wasn't obvious already. "There are horrors that await you, horrors you will never forget for the rest of your life. Let this be a lesson to you and to all of your little friends who think I am a force to be reckoned with. You will never, ever be Queen of Wonderland, you pathetic piece of shit."

The Queen grabbed Alice by her hair and pulled her to her feet. From there, she pulled her through the castle, flanked by two guards. Everyone else in the castle seemed to have disappeared. They were already sitting in the arena, waiting for the event to begin.

Entering an underground tunnel, the Queen bid Alice adieu and went to take her place behind her son in the stands. Before sitting down, she was handed a microphone.

"Wonderland! I give you your champion!" Alice was pushed into the arena making the crowd gasp and talk excitedly. The Queen sat back, satisfied, and waited.

Alice wasn't sure of what was going to happen, but she was sure of the men sitting in the front row of the stands. She found comfort, no matter how little, in their faces. She was thinking about all of wonderfully frustrating times she spent with them when she head a sharp crack and felt a shooting pain across her back.

The crowd gasped once more as a man dressed in black cracked the whip across Alice's back again and again, only stopping to raise it over his head before inflicting another painful blow.

He grabbed her shoulder roughly and lifted her so that he back was facing the audience. Cheshire was crying out for her and Hatter and Hare looked like they were ready to kill someone. Jack had his face turned from the arena; he couldn't stand watching the horrifying scene in front of him. When the Queen noticed this, she bent down to force his face forward. "This is just the start, Jackie," she cackled evilly.

The Queen nodded at the man in the arena and he slowly tore the fabric away from Alice's skin; she was completely exposed to everyone in Wonderland.

Alice was in such incredible pain that she hardly cared she was naked. It was the man's rough, calloused hands grabbing her breasts that awakened her shame. He wasn't gentle with her, either. His hands were kneading the orbs with such force that she was sure they'd bruise. He lowered his face to her right nipple and bit down on the sensitive flesh. Alice cried out in pain. He repeated the process with her left nipple.

At her second cry of pain, the man shoved one of his fingers inside her. She had never been penetrated before and his long fingers tore right through her hymen.

"NO!" she heard Cheshire cry in the distance. She kept her eyes closed and tried to transport herself to another place. She was having tea with Dinah or reading a book. She was running a Caucus Race or getting stuck in White's house.

The Duchess, who was seated not far behind the Queen, squealed in delight, spreading her own legs apart as Alice did. The Queen saw her hand snake under her dress and was satisfied.

The man in black began to move his finger in and out of her quickly, causing Alice to feel a burning sensation. With his other hand, he continued his ministrations on her breasts. Minutes later, he added another large finger into her. She did not realize that another man had come up behind her. He was stark naked and was helping the man in black to take his clothes off as well. Both men were extremely aroused.

The second man stepped in front of her and knelt down so that her privates were directly in front of his face. While the first man was still fingering her, the other man bent in and bit down on her clit. Alice moaned in pain, but perhaps her torturers took it as arousal. They smiled at each other as one more finger was added. The biting turned to licking, teasing the extremely sensitive flesh of Alice's privates.

All of the sudden, both men stopped. When Alice opened her eyes and looked behind her, they were both gone. A few feet behind her sat a small mattress tilted at an angle facing the Queen. If she didn't know what was going to happen to her before, she certainly knew it now; Alice was going to be raped.

Cheshire was going insane. He literally felt his brain unravel bit by bit as he watched the girl he loved being touched like that in front of his very eyes. He was powerless. Not only did they have him tied to a chair, they had a guard in charge of holding onto him at all times so he couldn't transport onto the arena to save Alice. He turned his head to see Jack looking just as queazy as he was, his face ashen. Hatter and Hare looked at each other as if they were silently communicating back and forth.

He saw the man who would take Alice's virginity approach her. His monster organ was twice the size of any normal man's. He would rip her apart. Cheshire wanted to tell her to run, wanted to help her escape. Her first time shouldn't happen like this. But they were both helpless. There was no escape.

Alice felt his penis against her back as the man dragged her back onto the mattress. His fingers picked up where the other man left off. His thumb was quickly strumming her clit, making her finally begin to become wet. She heard his fingers sloshing within her as he drove them in and out. When he took his hands out, he wiped her fluid on his tool, lubricating it slightly.

The Queen held her breath as the man she'd chosen to break Alice lined himself up with her opening. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. Payback.

The man chuckled darkly into Alice's ear and whispered in a husky voice, "You shouldn't have angered the Queen, but I'm glad you did."

With that, he entered her in one swift motion.

Alice screamed in pain. She felt like she was being split in half. Her screams were matched by those of Cheshire. He was in pain, too; a pain that tore him apart, unwinding him slowly and painfully as he watched Alice being molested. Their cries were so loud that nobody could hear Jack's retching as he vomited.

The man who was raping her was obviously as cold and uncaring as the Queen herself. He merely grunted, pumping faster and faster into Alice while she begged for mercy.

"Stop! Stop! Please stop!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. Even though she was beginning to become used to the foreign object inside of her, she was still in an incredible amount of pain. It seemed like it would never end.

In reality, though, the man only lasted a few minutes before he finished inside of Alice. He sped up, thrusting himself further and further into her. His breathing began to come faster and faster, and the grunts increased in volume. With one powerful thrust, he emptied himself in her and pulled out. Before leaving the mattress, he gave Alice's breasts another firm squeeze, then walked away.

Alice could hardly see through her tear-filled eyes. She heard Cheshire's voice, rough from yelling so much, trying to comfort her. She heard the Queen clapping and laughing evilly. The rest of Wonderland ceased to exist.

She shut her eyes once more, alone and scared. She felt another two pairs of hands on her body, playing with her skin, pinching and smacking it. Someone entered her, same as the first had, with no gentleness. He pulled out immediately, though. Alice looked behind her and saw what the new man was planning on doing. He was going to take her ass.

Cheshire looked on, torrents of salt water flowing down his cheeks. He could feel his guard's erection pressed against him below the arm of the chair. Every second Alice was being tortured, he became more and more aroused. Cheshire wanted to kill him. He wanted to kill them all.

Alice was entered by the second and was now being pounded on both ends. She was sore and was beginning to lose consciousness. She begged and pleaded with whatever god she knew to let it all go black.

Cheshire's guard's erection became too much. For a mere second, the guard released Chess's shoulder to touch himself, but that second was all that he needed.

Feeling the weight of the guard's hand lifted, Cheshire quickly transported himself to Alice. He tore her (much less gently than he would have liked) from the men she was positioned between and hugged her close while he envisioned Hare's house. Before anyone could stop them, they had disappeared.

In the tunnel of light, Cheshire felt invigorated instead of diminished, even as he felt Alice's naked frame go limp on top of him. He drew power from the vortex where last time he only felt pain. When he and Alice were deposited in front of White's feet, he knew that he had to go back to free his friends.

"Alice, oh my god! Alice!" White was up from his seat in a second. His tear-streaked face told Cheshire that he knew exactly what had happened to the girl they loved. White pulled her still unconscious frame to him and hugged her close.

"I have to go back. Please take care of her," Chess said. White merely nodded as he buried his face in her gold locks.

Cheshire bent down to kiss Alice's head, then straightened once more.

When White looked up again, Chess was gone.


	16. The Rescue

**I know! I know! You guys probably hate me for not updating in, like, 3 months. SORRY! I can blame nothing but laziness and writer's block. I hope you like this section, even though it's kinda short-ish!**

**Stay tuned at the end for a few reader shout-outs. Seriously, you guys deserve it.**

White had pulled himself together enough to care for Alice. He took a wet cloth and washed her, trying to stop the small trickle of blood coming from her privates. He wasn't enjoying it by any means. It was simply something that needed to be done. If he were permitted to revisit these parts of Alice later, that'd be a different story.

For now, he wrapped a blanket around her and thought soothing things, even though he knew she couldn't hear them. He cradled her still-limp form in his arms.

Alice, I love you. You're safe now. I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve this. I love you. You'll be okay. You're with friends now. I love you. Alice. Alice.

Meanwhile, Chess had arrived back in the arena to find the crowd in a state of confusion. Before the guards had even noticed his arrival, he cut Hatter and Hare loose and handed each a knife.

"Splendid, old chap," Hatter replied with a fire in his eye. He danced around a guard who tried to grab him and pulled a teacup out of thin air. Taking a sip, he dodged another servant of the Queen and smashed the cup on his head.

Hatter wasn't the only one capable of taking care of himself. The Hare was dangerous with a blade. Chess was obviously aware of this when he chose the weapons. He was cutting up the guard one by one and was quick about it, too.

The Queen was outraged. She was screaming bloody murder - literally - as her face turned the shade of a ripe tomato. The King was standing up next to her, not entirely sure what he should do.

Cheshire was having a hard time freeing Jack. He was the most well-guarded of the captives because he was so valuable to the kingdom. Chess had to use his gift to surprise attack the guards, but they seemed to keep coming at him. But while Cheshire kept them busy, Hatter made his way over to free the prince.

"Onward!" Hatter called loudly, signaling the group's escape.

The Hatter, Hare, and the prince scattered into the crowd, making it nearly impossible for the guard to locate them amidst the pandemonium. The Queen's subjects were running, terrified of both the events of the day and of the escape of palace prisoners. It was easy to get lost in the mix.

Chess merely popped in and out, checking on his allies and making sure none of them would be captured. "Meet back at Hare's," he whispered in all of their ears. Then, like the wind, he was gone.

He returned to find White holding Alice close to his chest. Chess had been gone for nearly twenty minutes now and Alice still hadn't regained consciousness. He knelt down on the other side of the girl he loved and rested his cheek in the crook of her neck.

White was uncomfortable with Cheshire's proximity to Alice. He acknowledged that both of them had been through quite the ordeal trying to save her and that they needed to become allies in order to keep her safe, but that did not mean he was willing to share her. She was his. She had been since the first day of his existence. Why else would he be able to hear her thoughts?

Cheshire lifted his lips to Alice's soft skin and began to bathe her neck in kisses. White instinctively pulled her closer to him and away from Chess. Without her touch, Cheshire felt hollow, empty. He needed her back. Now.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he growled deeply.

"I haven't the slightest clue what you mean," White muttered quietly, stroking Alice's smooth hair as he gently turned her face to his.

"She doesn't belong to you," he retorted. "Besides, what have you done to help her? To rescue her? To save her from this mess?"

"Excuse me for being captured and tortured by the Queen. And if I remember correctly, aren't you the reason she got her hands on Alice in the first place?" he pointed out.

Cheshire was fuming at himself and at White. All of the things he was saying were true. It was his fault. He couldn't save her. He had to watch as she was ravaged by those men. He was sitting only feet away from the spectacle, and he was completely helpless.

"Stop it, White," came a weak voice. Alice's eyes fluttered open and looked up at the boy that was holding her close to his chest. "You know this isn't his fault."

"Alice, shhh. It's going to be okay," White whispered, rocking her gently back and forth. Cheshire sat mute next to them on the floor. He merely grabbed her hand and began stroking it with his.

Alice didn't say anything for a minute. She knew what she wanted to say - that it was really White's fault she was even in Wonderland in the first place - but she didn't want Chess to go off on him. She just wanted some peace. Her body ached from its abuse and she could deal with the boys later.

"I don't suppose there's any aspirin in Wonderland, is there?" she asked, trying to lay as still as possible so she wouldn't agitate her injuries.

"Aspirin?" Chess said, looking confused.

"It's pain medication from her world," White explained. "And no, I'm afraid not, love. But we do have something similar. I think Hare has some in his medicine cabinet. Cheshire, would you mind?"

Chess said nothing as he stood up and walked further into the home. Alice didn't know what to think of that. Had she done something wrong? Was he mad at her?

"No, Alice, no," White hushed her. "He's upset with me, not with you."

Instead of thinking about it more, Alice let her mind go blank. It was easier than trying to deal with the boys.

The truth was, Alice didn't know what to do with them anyways, even when she was feeling well. She had strong feelings for the both of them, and she didn't know how she would choose between them, if it came to that.

"Where is everyone else?" Alice suddenly asked, trying to prop herself up in White's arms. When she found the room spinning, she realized it had been a bad idea and rested her head back in the crook of White's elbow.

"They should be alright," Chess said, coming back into the sitting room with a bottle in his hand. "When I left them, they had escaped the arena and were heading back here.

"Here, take this," he said, putting the purple bottle on the floor next to Alice. "Beastly stuff. I'll get you a glass of water to wash it down with."

"Thanks, Chess," Alice said sweetly, trying to muster a sincere smile. It looked more like a grimace, but both boys noticed the gesture.

"No problem, Alice," he said. He walked back to where she and White were sitting and planted a kiss on her forehead before turning toward the kitchen area.

"Oh, and Chess?" Alice added. "You look better without your chains."

Chess swelled with pride and broke in two simultaneously. She was complimenting him, but he remembered the sacrifice she had made to free him. He had to watch every painful second of it. It would haunt him until the day he died. But she complimented him!

White was teeming in jealousy. She was complimenting that insufferable, pig-headed lunatic while she was sitting in his arms! Did she not care about his feelings at all?

It hadn't occurred to White that Alice may not reciprocate his feelings for her. Not totally. He had been forced to think of it very little before any of them were captured by the Queen. In fact, he remembered her thinking things to him. At that time, she chose him. He hoped she still felt that way.

It's you. It's always been you, you know that. I just don't know if you feel the same way, she had thought to him at the time.

He wasn't able to tell her his feelings then. Now wasn't the right time either, but if he could just make her see...

"Here's your water," Chess said, interrupting White's thoughts.

"Thanks. So how much of this stuff am I supposed to take?" she asked, appraising the bottle without moving toward it. White wondered if she even could move toward it. He lifted the bottle to her mouth anyways.

"Just a small sip," he said, pressing it to her bottom lip to swallow. She gulped the few drops of liquid dramatically. "That's good."

"Blech!" Alice exclaimed, making a face. Cheshire hurried over to her, putting the water to her lips the same way White had with the bottle. White noticed Chess brushed his hands against her breasts as he bent over and became red with anger.

"Was that absolutely necessary?" he said with quiet fury.

"White..." Alice warned, pulling back from the water glass.

Cheshire looked at White with a blank face, and White looked back unabashedly. Each was trying to figure out the other's angle. Each was trying to figure out how to win Alice's heart. Each was trying to figure out how to destroy the other. And Alice picked up on it.

"Chess, would you mind going to see how Hatter, Hare, and Jack are doing? I'm really worried about them," Alice said softly.

"They're fine," Cheshire said, still bent over her.

"Chess," she said, moving her hand to touch his face. She grimaced in pain as she did it. "Please."

He looked up at his competition, holding the girl he loved in his strong arms. He didn't want to leave her alone with him any longer than was necessary. He wanted to be with her, and White didn't deserve to be.

She wanted to talk to him alone, and Cheshire knew he would give her anything she asked. So he left without a word.

**Shout-outs!**

**Batty Polka**: Thanks for being with me from the start! Your comments really helped me keep going after very little recognition in the first few chapters!

**Niphuria**: Thanks for the support! I hope you're still reading!

**TheGreatgrape**: Thanks for being so passionate about my characters! Still on Team White?

**xXSolaine-GirlXx**: Thanks for the emoticons! Sorry I take so long getting new chapters up! If I knew who was going to end up with Alice...naw, I still probably wouldn't tell ya ;)

**SasuTenLuvr**: Thanks for getting into my story! So are you on Team White or Team Chess? I'm not quite sure where I stand either!

**Ivory Tears**: I'm glad you like it! Thanks for the love!

**Leigh UK**: Haha, where do I begin? Thanks for bothering me to update! You have no idea how great it feels to have someone THAT interested in a story you're writing. That being said, sorry it took me like 2 extra months to get this chapter up. I hope you liked it!

**darklightningdevil**: Thanks for reading! I hope you get the ending you want (because honestly, it could go either way right now).

**Jem**: I hope you keep up with the story! Lots of love!

**th1rteenr3asons**: Sorry to keep you waiting! Yeah, it is the kind of story you can read in one sitting, isn't it?

**F3ARTH3RIPP3R**: Hope you liked the update! Your compliment was truly humbling!


	17. The Conversation

**I know this is a super-short update, but I wanted to give you guys a little something while I was on break. I hope you aren't disappointed!**

**Also, one of my favorite readers, SasuTenLuvr, created a drawing based on my fic! I'm terribly blessed having such amazing people reading my story. Here's the link to the picture! I know it's all I've been looking at since I first saw it! b l u e n e w a 9 6 . d e v i a n t a r t . c o m /gallery/#/d4tmm66 (take out the spaces between the deviantart and .com)**

"Alice, I-"

"Put me down on the sofa, White," Alice said softly, cutting him off. She winced slightly as he picked her up to move her, but she refused to let herself show her pain any more than that.

"Alice, you don't have to pretend with me. I know how you're feeling," he said, putting her down gently on Hare's plush couch. God only knew what kind of debauchery had happened there between Hatter and Hare. He didn't want to think about it.

"But you don't, White," Alice said in a small voice. "You think you do. That's the problem."

White sat in stunned silence and waited for her to get her thoughts organized. She was mad at him, he knew that much. She tried to hide it from him, but he could hear it in his mind. He was pushing her away with the one thing that should have brought them closer together: their mind connection.

"May I say something?" he asked. His head was spinning and he wanted it to stop. Her thoughts quieted instantly as she turned her attention to him.

_Yes_, she thought, not bothering to even say the word aloud.

White winced. He wasn't sure that was a good thing or not.

"I know I've never been honest with you about my feelings. I've never said the words out loud. And I've acted like a prick lately just trying to get you to realize how I feel about you. This thing between me and Cheshire-"

"White," she said, cutting him off again, "you aren't a prick."

"Maybe so, but I've been behaving as such. I don't deserve you, Alice. I know that, but it doesn't stop my heart from feeling what I feel," he said. His chest heaved as he spoke, and he felt like his heart was aboard a ship caught in a terrible storm. He had never done it before, but it seemed like he had tuned out everything Alice was thinking. His own emotions were blinding him.

Alice reached up to him and brushed a tear from his cheek. White wasn't even aware he was crying.

He caught her hand in his and placed a gentle kiss in her palm.

"What are you trying to say?" she said, tilting her head so that her forehead was brushing his white-blond hair.

"Damn it, Alice, are you going to make me say it?" he shouted, frustrated and quite nearly emotionally spent.

Alice jerked her head back at his sudden outburst. She wasn't sure what was going on in his head. She never had known. Most of their journey, she was convinced he was just feeling guilty for putting her in danger. But then their kiss at the Turtle's...

"Can you leave me some of my pride?" he asked, his voice still quaking with emotion.

Moments later, when she knew White wasn't going to continue, Alice told him something she never thought she would ever reveal to him.

"I read your journal," she said.

His head snapped up, and he looked her directly in the eye. The hurt he felt, the betrayal, was palpable. It made Alice feel physically worse than she had been. She assumed she'd thought about it at some point so he'd have heard it in her thoughts. She assumed wrong.

"How could you?" he said, backing away from her. "How could you do that and still ask me to..."

"No, White! It was before I knew you!" Alice said desperately to his retreating figure. He was moving closer and closer to the cottage door, and farther and farther away from her.

"Don't," he said, his voice shaking. With what, Alice couldn't decide. Anger? Hurt? Sadness? He held up his finger to her, stopping her from continuing. He moved away in silence. "You don't get to do that."

"What happened to-"

"No!" White said, cutting her off. "Do you have any idea what you've done? This entire time I've been thinking about what a total asshat I've been, not telling you. And you knew! You've known this whole time and you still chose to be close to _him_," he spat.

His tears were flowing freely now. He felt like his whole universe was imploding, and he saw nothing but white. He felt behind him for the doorknob and found it. He was going to walk out on her, the girl that he loved. Or used to love. His heart was pulling him in so many directions, he wasn't sure what he felt anymore.

"White, don't go!" she pleaded. He wasn't sure why she was doing that. She obviously had no regard for his feelings at all.

"Alice," he said as evenly as he could, "what you did was unforgivable." With that, he opened the door, walked out, and slammed it behind him.


	18. Alone

**WOW. It's literally been forever. Here's a quick update. I hope to be writing more soon. Hopefully you guys are still interested! (:**

When Chess heard the door slam, he ran back into the sitting room to check on Alice. She was there, tears streaming down her face, and White was nowhere to be found. Glancing out the window, he saw the boy storming back up the path, away from the cottage.

"Alice, what's wrong?" he asked quietly, scooping her into his arms as she silently sobbed into his shoulder. "What did he do?"

"It's all my fault," she said, hiccuping. Her cheeks were blotchy and red and she scratched at them furiously, trying to stop the tears from rolling off her chin.

He shushed her and rocked her back and forth, stroking her hair softly. He didn't say anything because he didn't know what to say. Had she just picked him over White? Is that why he stormed out? Was it something else? Chess didn't know.

"Why am I here?" she asked dejectedly, sucking in shallow breaths.

"You need to rest and get better, love. You've been through-"

"No, Chess, that's not what I mean," she said, heaving a great sigh. "I mean why am I here in Wonderland?"

He sat in shocked silence, again unsure what to say. She'd never told him how she'd gotten here, and he never thought to ask. It didn't matter to him because she was there.

She was comforted by his silence. She craved it, sometimes, especially in Wonderland. She barely had time to collect her own thoughts before some odd creature or other surprised her, half of which seemed convinced they needed to kill or torture her.

"Why did he leave?" he asked her softly after a while.

She took a slow breath in, and huffed out, "Because I read his journal."

Cheshire looked down at her in shocked silence. Something as inconsequential as a journal made White abandon her? He, the boy who wished to claim her as his own, would leave her with Chess because of a journal?

"I don't even know why he got so upset about it," she continued. "He wouldn't even let me explain. I read a few sentences about him working for the Queen. It's not like I studied the whole thing." A tear was running down her face as she spoke, so Cheshire wiped it away in silence, waiting for her to go on.

"He acted like...I don't know what else that journal said, but he just exploded on me. I thought he cared about me, Chess."

He looked at her again, her eyes so full of sadness over one boy. One boy that wasn't him. At that moment, he knew he'd never be the love of Alice's life, and his heart was sliced into millions of tiny pieces. He moved to stand up, removing Alice's arms from around him. Looking down at her one more time, he told her, "I love you. You know that," and he popped out of the small house.

Even when Jack, Hatter, and March Hare opened the door and fussed over Alice, she'd never felt so utterly alone and abandoned.


End file.
